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Energy Department Refuses To Give Trump Team Names of People Who Worked On Climate Change (businessinsider.com)
The Department of Energy said Tuesday it will reject the request by President-elect Donald Trump's transition team to name staffers who worked on climate change programs. Energy spokesman Eben Burnhan-Snyder said the agency received "significant feedback" from workers regarding a questionnaire from the transition team that leaked last week. From a Reuters story, syndicated on BusinessInsider: The response from the Energy Department could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. "Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people," Eben Burnham-Snyder, Energy Department spokesman said. "We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team."
Also, since te website won't render properly with basic security enabled in the browser, here's the page source copypasta:
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday
it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald
Trump's Energy Department transition team for the names of people
who have worked on climate change and the professional society
memberships of lab workers.
The response from the Energy Department could signal a rocky
transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential
friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain
in place.
The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by
Reuters last week contains 74 questions including a request for a
list of all department employees and contractors who attended the
annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within
the last five years.
Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the
department will not comply.
"Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at
our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and
the important work our department does to benefit the American
people," Burnham-Snyder said.
"We are going to respect the professional and scientific
integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and
across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with
all publicly available information with the transition team. We
will not be providing any individual names to the transition
team."
He added that the request "left many in our workforce unsettled."
Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick
Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy
Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on
nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy,
advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science.
The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors
who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a
measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and
benefits of new energy and environment regulations. It also asked
for all publications written by employees at the department's 17
national laboratories for the past three years.
Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo.
"This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies
list," a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be
identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition
team, had told Reuters.
Republican Trump said during his election campaign that climate
change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S.
manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year's landmark
global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President
Barack Obama.
Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he
will keep an "open mind" about the Paris deal. He also met with
former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on
climate change.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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Nothing Trump has said makes anybody think they would want this list for anything good. Trump is an ignorant, egotistical fool. I'm not even sure he means well, I think he's doing the whole president thing solely for his ego. While the backlash that would occur should the electoral college not install Trump would be massive, I think they would be fully justified in not voting for him. This is exactly why the electoral college exists, but it's unfortunate that there are no good alternatives to Trump right now. At least the alternatives wouldn't be doing it for their ego, and wouldn't be completely ignorant about pretty much everything.
For many years now. Even the fossil fuel companies have known about AGW for four decades.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Short version: There is more than a century of precedent to protect federal employees, both their privacy, as well as their employment.
Longer version:
From the US Merit System Protection Board
Employees should be retained on the basis of adequacy of their performance, inadequate performance should be corrected, and employees should be separated who cannot or will not improve their performance to meet required standards.
Employees should be protected against arbitrary action, personal favoritism, or coercion for partisan political purposes
Also see the Wikipedia Article
And for an even longer version, read up about the US "Spoils System", and how it lead to the assassination of a President. It was then replaced by the Merit System, in 1883.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
Sure, just like the scene from Mars Attacks where the Martians kept repeating "don't run, we are your friends" as they walked through the streets evaporating humans with their phasers.
I work in government IT. No one is worried about Trump. No one.
The last president that promised to cut government and eliminate entire departments was Ronald Regan. He eliminated zero departments and greatly expanded the size of government. The only post-war president to cut the size of government, as a percentage of GDP, was Bill Clinton. But he had it easy after the bloat of the Reagan years. Conservatives didn't love Reagan because of what he did, but because of what he said. Same for liberals and Bill Clinton.
The lesson Donald should learn from this is that what he says means a lot more than what he does. Talk big, do little, blame others, be popular. If he sticks to this formula, he should coast to reelection in 2020.
And yet 30% of America is 100% verifiable idiots. Trump is their leader of denying reality. Climate change isn't even the most obvious of his ridiculously retarded misconceptions, and they seem to be multiplying.
So yes, FUCK THOSE RETARDS, regardless of whether or not they are "my fellow" Americans.
Trump might actually submit a budget to the congress (as Obama has never done),
... Are you high? Obama submitted budget proposals every year he was in office, just like every President before him since 1924.
How the fuck did this guy get modded up? Trump is NOT his employer. Trump is fucking civilian until he actually takes the office.
And even then he will NOT be their employer (and he will still be a civilian). He does not own the United States or Federal Government. He is temporary management hired by the voters, and lacks unlimited powers, even within the executive branch which he manages. We do not elect gods, or kings, or tyrants (only tyrant-wannabes).
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
You don't know. All the Departments in the cabinet are established by Federal law as passed by Congress.
First...what exactly does the "Department of Energy" do for us in the US?
They have quite a few general energy-related projects, but a major thrust of DoE contractors LANL, LLNL, Sandia and others is maintenance of our nuclear weapon stockpile. Since we're not testing any more, we put a lot of work into making sure our nukes will function as designed.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Coal's lunch was eaten by cheap natural gas. Incidentally, that lunatic is also on the record for opening federal lands for more oil and gas.
All of them were set up by law. Executive branch discretion doesn't go nearly as far as you are imagining. Among other things, Congress funds all of the departments.
This is easy-to-find stuff - for DOE, it's in the second graf of the history section on wikipedia:
On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (Pub.L. 95-91, 91 Stat. 565, enacted August 4, 1977), which created the Department of Energy.
First...what exactly does the "Department of Energy" do for us in the US?
I honestly don't know and will look it up, but if anyone can enlighten me, I'd be interested in a quick read.
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States Government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material. Its responsibilities include the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. It also directs research in genomics; the Human Genome Project originated in a DOE initiative.[3] DOE sponsors more research in the physical sciences than any other U.S. federal agency, the majority of which is conducted through its system of National Laboratories.[4]
The agency is administered by the United States Secretary of Energy, and its headquarters are located in Southwest Washington, D.C., on Independence Avenue in the James V. Forrestal Building, named for James Forrestal, as well as in Germantown, Maryland.
From Wikipedia, opening to article on said department. You can also visit their website.
That being said...aren't the departments pretty much at the behest of the Exective Branch? Could the new President not just completely disband them with the stroke of a pen?
No. It is not an executive office, and the president is not a dictator.
I mean, these are NOT part of congress, etc. They are set up by the Exec. branch to help enact and follow laws from congress, but they really aren't constitutional established or protected government entities are they?
The United States Government is established in a variety of laws, not just the Constitution. The President is obligated to faithfully execute them. Failing to do so would be an impeachable offense.
For example, from the above page:
1920 â" Federal Power Act
1935 â" Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
1946 â" Atomic Energy Act PL 79-585 (created the Atomic Energy Commission) [Superseded by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954]
1954 â" Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as Amended PL 83-703
1956 â" Colorado River Storage Project PL 84-485
1957 â" Atomic Energy Commission Acquisition of Property PL 85-162
1957 â" Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act PL 85-256
1968 â" Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act PL 90-481
1973 â" Mineral Leasing Act Amendments (Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline Authorization) PL 93-153
1974 â" Energy Reorganization Act PL 93-438 (Split the AEC into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
1975 â" Energy Policy and Conservation Act PL 94-163
1977 â" Department of Energy Organization Act PL 95-91 (Dismantled ERDA and replaced it with the Department of Energy)
1978 â" National Energy Act PL 95-617, 618, 619, 620, 621
1980 â" Energy Security Act PL 96-294
1989 â" Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act PL 101-60
1992 â" Energy Policy Act of 1992 PL 102-486
2000 â" National Nuclear Security Administration Act PL 106-65
2005 â" Energy Policy Act of 2005 PL 109-58
2007 â" Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 PL 110-140
2008 â" Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 PL 110-234
Even attempting to unilaterally disband the department would likely merit an ethics complaint.
I may be wrong here, but that's my 30K foot level of understanding of these departments.
I submit that you are suffering from oxygen deprivation at that altitude.
I'm sure they don't *have* to answer to a president-elect, after all, he's not president yet.
There are some laws that do require cooperation with a president-elect, but I'd have to r
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Fourteenth Amendment made you a citizen of the United States first.
The problem is that Trump is a moron.
I disagree. Trump is a con man, pure and simple, and he's pretty good at it.