The U.S. Department of Energy has become a lightning rod for criticism in parts of the Republican Party and the fossil fuels industry unhappy about the Obama administration’s energy and climate policies. Presidential candidate Rick Perry promised to abolish the Department of Energy along with the Departments of Commerce and Education during a debate in 2011. Perry’s views on the department’s usefulness may evolve now he has been selected to lead it in a future Trump administration (“Trump picks climate sceptic Perry for top U.S. energy job”, Reuters, Dec. 14). But Trump’s transition team has been waging its own war against the department sending it a detailed 74-item questionnaire about climate policies, forecasting and the work of career civil servants and officials. Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate […]