Trump wants to keep the nuclear power plants alive.
Donald Trump is making quick moves on his controversial mission statements that he promised during his election run and the latest one is the scrapping of climate agreements that are affecting the growth of American.
According to the reports, the Trump transition team has sent a list of 74 questions to the Energy Department asking to share the details of the employees and contractors involved in international climate meetings and domestic attempts aimed at cutting carbon emissions.
The questionnaire also asks to divulge the identities of people who attended the annual climate talks hosted by the United Nations in the last five years. The transition team has also requested for the details of the people who were in the President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
By all probabilities, Trump is gearing up to fulfil his campaign promise in the environment sector and as the first step towards this his transition team will dissect Obama administration’s policies. Trump had during his election rally promised to dismantle, including the Paris Climate Agreement, Clean Power Plan, and various other DOE and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.
“This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list,” said a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal by the Trump transition team, told Reuters. “When Donald Trump said he wanted to drain the swamp it apparently was just to make room for witch hunts and it’s starting here at the DOE and our 17 national labs.â€
In addition to the request for the details of people involved in the making decisive decisions on environment the Trump transition team has also asked for information about the Energy Department’s loan programs, semi-independent research laboratories, statistics office, how the scientific models used to forecast future climate changes operate, and consequences of fossil fuel use.
The Trump administration also seems to be keen in keeping the nuclear power plants alive as they have also asked questions regarding how to store used radioactive materials.
There has not been any official word from the Trump transition team regarding the questionnaire but a close aide to the transition team was quoted by Bloomberg saying that the questionnaire is intended to ensure transparency ensure transparency into the workings of the agency and Obama’s policies.
Since Trump won the presidential election there has been a growing concern among the scientific community as the businessman turned politician has been vocal about his disagreement with the scientific community over issues of climate change and scientific integrity.