The president-elect has signaled that he may be interested in reeling in some of the current president’s climate change obsession, which is expressing itself in a variety of federal arenas. A recent questionnaire sent to the Department of Energy by Trump’s transition team was designed to ascertain exactly which employees were wasting everybody’s time and money working on climate change-related projects. Apparently unaware of the chain of command, the DoE is refusing to cooperate:
The Department of Energy is refusing the Trump transition team’s request to name those who have worked on climate change within the department, because of concerns about what the incoming administration will do with the names. President-elect Donald Trump has denied climate change is real.
NPR’s Jennifer Ludden tells our Newscast unit the request of such names was included in a 74-question document distributed to the agency’s workforce. Jennifer says, “The Trump team wants the names of career employees and contractors who have attended U.N. climate talks over the past five years. It also wants emails about those meetings.”
The full list of questions can be found here.
On Tuesday, the department released a statement saying the questionnaire had “unsettled” many in its workforce, that it would “be forthcoming with all [publicly] available information” but it would withhold “any individual names.”
“We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” said spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder.
Few things fight more fiercely than a bureaucrat who is in fear of losing his or her cushy taxpayer-leeching gig. Charlie Sheen’s cocaine dealer selection process circa 2012 was more integrity-laden than what is going on here.
Few things would be nicer than seeing the new administration begin to gut some of the federal bloat, especially as it pertains to the unchecked climate hysteria agenda of the past eight years. Sadly, Trump has already met with Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio to discuss the climate lunacy, so that’s hardly an indicator that a wholesale purge is forthcoming.
If the work being done by these people is truly important, what are they afraid of? Bureaucrats aren’t entitled to their jobs for life, despite what they might think.
Federal employees and contractors are also not entitled to be insubordinate to the president, especially one whose famous catch phrase is “You’re fired!”
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