Trump team planning energy policy shake-up

DOE questioned in transition memo

Advisers to Presidentelect Donald Trump are developing plans to reshape Department of Energy programs, help keep aging nuclear plants online and identify staffers who played a role in promoting President Barack Obama’s climate agenda.

The transition team has asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended U.N. climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information on agency loan programs, research activities and the basis for its statistics, according to a five-page internal document, circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday, that lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, agency sources said.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to eliminate government waste, rescind “job-killing” regulations and cancel the Paris climate accord, in which nearly 200 countries pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Trump, though, hasn’t detailed specific plans for federal agencies.

The document obtained by Bloomberg offers clues on where his administration may be headed on energy policy, based on the nature of questions involving the agency’s research agenda, nuclear program and national labs.

The group also questions whether any technologies or products that have emerged from DOE programs “are currently offered in the market without any subsidy” and asks “what mechanisms exist to help the national laboratories commercialize their scientific and technological prowess.”

Two Energy Department employees who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the questionnaire and said agency staff were unsettled by the Trump team’s information request.