Report: Trump Team Wants To ID Energy Dept. Staffers Engaged In Climate Policy

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Atkinson, N.H. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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This post has been updated.

Donald Trump’s transition team is looking to identify staffers at the Energy Department who worked on climate policy under the Obama administration, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Transition advisers asked the Energy Department to provide a list of employees and contractors who attended United Nations meetings on climate and those who worked on metrics regarding the administration’s rules regulating carbon emissions, according to Bloomberg News.

Bloomberg News did not provide additional details on the Trump team’s request regarding staffers who worked on climate policy.

Politico obtained a copy of the memo to the Energy Department and reported that Trump’s team asked for a list of staffers who attended interagency working groups that discussed the social cost of carbon, a metric used to determine the economic impact of increasing or decreasing carbon emissions.

The questionnaire also asked “which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan,” according to Politico.

Paired with Trump’s decision to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the memo suggests that the Trump could target the Obama administration’s work on clean energy. Pruitt is a vocal opponent of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan to regulate carbon emissions and has expressed skepticism about the science behind climate change.

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