What is Trump Doing With His Personnel Questionaire to the Department of Energy?

What is Trump’s Transition Team Doing With Their Personnel Questionnaire to the Department of Energy?

They have sent a 74 question form asking about personnel who work on various clean energy projects or climate science research. They want to know who attends climate change policy conferences, and ask for emails and documents about the conferences, as reported by Carol Davenport of the NY Times. The last 9 questions sound like standard ones for evaluation of the lab and personnel. But the ones about emails and documents sound like the Clinton email probes, and the attack on Hockey Stick climate scientist Michael Mann using hacked emails. In an interview with the same NY Times, Trump claimed that Mann’s emails were a “disaster”, despite the fact that Mann had been cleared by several investigations. Clearly, dedicated scientists who are involved and concerned about the DOE’s missions and their futures there are concerned.

I will present some crazy-sounding ideas about what is going on, but they all originate from Trump’s or Republicans’ rhetoric. This is not an article in which I attempt to be humorous.

Trump has stated once, and not really purged the restatement of, that climate change is a Chinese conspiracy to increase our cost of doing business and undermine our competitiveness. Several other Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio take a similar viewpoint. Sen. Inhofe of Oklahoma has long maintained, as Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, that global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind (although I think it is Inhofe himself).

Trump has said to loud cheers that he is going to “drain the swamp”. Nobody knows what that means, but thought it was associated with Clinton’s connections to Wall Street. Since Trump’s hiring Goldman Sachs’ men to run the finances, it can’t be that. Trump is also hiring other Oklahomans: oilman Harold Hamm for Energy advisor and EPA transition, and Thomas Pierce for EPA Administrator.

So maybe “drain the swamp” means to purge all climate scientists, energy employees who act on clean energy, all the generals who Trump and Lt. Gen. Flynn are smarter than, and all of the intelligence experts that Trump is smarter than. This would lead to total chaos in the functioning of the US government, and in the trust of the federal employees. So many good ones would be lost, and then replaced by ideologue puppets. It is already clear that since previous political appointees are being omitted from any transition meetings, they are going to be sacked, despite their capabilities and knowledge in doing their jobs.

DOE is responsible for Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Weapons’ Treaties, and approving and setting standards for Nuclear Reactors. Trump is looking for all those associated with the Iranian treaty to halt their nuclear weapons development, since he plans on renegotiating it, but he won’t be backed by European sanctions on that.

Trump is probably following Republicans in backing the nuclear reactor industry. You might ask why? The nuclear plants’ main use is replacing CO2 generating coal plants. But Trump is backing coal plants, and is denying climate change, as are almost all Republicans. Why do we then need expensive clean nuclear energy? I’m sure the DOE nuclear experts and their contractors attend clean energy conferences and inform the experts and the public of the usefulness of clean nuclear power. How would Trump help the nuclear industry by purging such experts, or prohibiting them from speaking at conferences? If Trump tried to remove nuclear reactor safety licensing and restrictions from the DOE, and the 100 nuclear reactors in the USA, the justified public fear and demonstrations would kill the US nuclear power industry during his term, and possibly for a term afterward.

There is also Rep. Florida Governor Rick Scott, who barred state employees from talking publicly or writing about climate change. I remind the reader that Florida’s Everglades and expensive Miami beach are in serious danger of flooding with sea level rise, rain storms, and storm surge. If Trump or his chosen DOE Secretary try muffling government experts, it would blow up in their faces.

It is clear that if Trump, the transition team, or the new head of the DOE or EPA takes on any of these chaotic actions, which stem from their own rhetoric, the government, environment, and the American people, will be much worse off for it.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2016 Election, Climate Change, Coal, Donald Trump, Fossil Fuel Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Weapons, Politics, Sea Level Rise, Trump Administration, Trump on Climate Change. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply