Department of Energy tells Trump they will not name climate policy personnel

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/13/department-of-energy-tells-tru.html

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Names. We want names.

Unsettled? Yeah, I bet so.

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oh thank god

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What @celesteh said. How long until the tweet shitstorm starts?

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Can the Department of Energy refuse a President’s request? They fall under the executive branch, I’m not entirely sure how this is supposed to work.

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“Drain the swamp” = Get rid of everyone with an opinion or expertise that will keep you from fracking, building pipelines, and trying to pull the fading coal industry from the brink.

Hearing Trump and his surrogates braying that this is “what Americans want” disgusts me.

Once Again:

Look up your Representative and Senators:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Call or email.

Hey, I’m going to write my letter right here, then copy and paste it:

Dear ____

I am alarmed by the incoming administration’s ominous demand that Department of Energy personnel reveal their connection with climate change research.

By “draining the swamp” did Donald Trump mean getting rid of anybody with the expertise to challenge his ignorant stance of climate change?

This, and the nomination of Rick Perry to head the department, suggests the administration will gut the department, turning it into a tool of fossil fuel industries.

I urge you to support the integrity of the Department of Energy, and oppose the nomination of Governor Perry.

Sincerely,

Stefan Jones

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The Rebel State of California is with you.

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Trump: "These people – I gotta show them who’s boss. What’s the single most insulting, most contemptuous fuck you I could give them?"
Aide: “You could give Energy to Perry. [Chortling] You know, the department he couldn’t even name.”

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And the one department he said he would dismantle as POTUS.

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Both of Oregon’s senators are, to judge from their tweets, royally ticked off about this. But they need to know that WE share their concerns.

I think it is more important for liberals in “red states” to show their teeth to conservative reps and senators. A concerted effort to LET THEM KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WILL BE UNHAPPY WITH THEM is extremely important.


BTW letters already sent to Wyden and Merkley.

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He’s not the President, and the current Sec’y of Energy is Obama’s appointee.

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He’s not the president. They have about 30 days to delete (edit: or - preferably - hide) the data.

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Yeah, that’s probably more to the point. That would be in line with Trump’s general direction for cabinet picks.

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Yes, sir, we know you have reams of evidence and many people over there indicating the existence of climate policy personnel, but I’m telling you we view that data as highly suspect if not an outright fabrication by people only concerned with their own status.
We can find no solid evidence of their existence and I think we should stop with this discussion which, frankly, I find just totally absurd.

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Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent servers in hopes of safeguarding it from any political interference.

The efforts include a “guerrilla archiving” event in Toronto, where experts will copy irreplaceable public data, meetings at the University of Pennsylvania focused on how to download as much federal data as possible in the coming weeks, and a collaboration of scientists and database experts who are compiling an online site to harbor scientific information.

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Ah, I can just see the headline:

“Trump Closes Department of Energy, replaces it with American Department of American Job Creation for Americans to be lead by a tribunal consisting of a inanimate diagram of fracking oil production, an oil-covered baby seal, and a heavily concussed Rick Perry. Angels seen loitering in sky with large bowls, trumpets looking at their watches nervously.”

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First of all, as others pointed out, he ain’t President yet. Secondly, the “demand” was in the form of a question, part of a long list of questions Trump’s transition team sent to the DoE and, presumably, other departments. These queries are, as I understand, fairly common for an incoming administration. This particular question, asking for names of specific employees, was definitely not common. What I’m not sure about is if it really was a demand, or simply a request. It’s a semantic difference, I suppose, and may not really be relevant. I’m just getting really tired of headlines and articles which exaggerate the truth. Especially in the case of Trump, because the non-editorialized truth is plenty bad enough.

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