Energy Department rejects Trump request for climate change names

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department rejected a request from President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team for the names of workers who played a role in implementing President Barack Obama’s climate agenda.

“We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees,” Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said in an email Tuesday. “We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”

The transition team asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop methods to estimate and justify the benefits of new rules, according to an internal document obtained by Bloomberg News.

Trump has questioned the science of climate change, and named to his transition team a number of people who either deny that man-made global warming is happening or are skeptical of the link between the burning of fossil fuels and the climate. Democrats and outside advocacy groups said the questions were an attempt to intimidate workers.

“Some of the questions asked left many in our workforce unsettled,” Burnham-Snyder said. The department would provide “publicly available information.”

Under Obama, the Energy Department played a major role advancing clean-energy technology through loan guarantees and incubators, while writing efficiency rules for appliances. The department leans heavily on tens of thousands of contractors, who supplement the work of its roughly 13,000 direct employees.

“It’s great that the Department of Energy is taking the independence of its employees seriously and will do what it can to protect their ability to do their jobs,” said Michael Halpern, deputy director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Thomas Pyle, who leads the energy-focused transition team for Trump, didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Trump has chosen Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, to lead the agency, according to four people familiar with the president-elect’s selection process. Perry, a former presidential candidate, once vowed to abolish the department but forgot its name during a debate. He’s at least the third Cabinet pick considered friendly to the oil industry.