WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers. 
 
 A child embraces a globe shaped balloon ahead of the start of the 2015 Paris World Climate Change Conference, known as the COP21 summit, in Rome, Italy , November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi 
 
 The Energy Department’s response could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect’s energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. 
 
 The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions, including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. 
 
 Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply. 
 
 “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people,” Burnham-Snyder said. 
 
 “We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” he added. “We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.” 
 
 He added that the request “left many in our workforce unsettled.” 
 
 Andrew Rosenberg, an official at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Energy Department “made the right choice in refusing this absurd and dangerous request. Federal agencies need the best available science to respond to the growing risk of climate change.” 
 
 Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science. 
 
 The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environmental regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department’s 17 national laboratories for the past three years. 
 
 Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo. 
 
 “This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list,” a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team, had told Reuters. 
 
 Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the queries “could have been an attempt to target civil servants,” including “scientists and lawyers and other experts who are critical to the success of the federal government’s ability to make policy.” 
 
 By design, their work transcends the term of any one president, Earnest said. 
 
 Trump, a Republican, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year’s landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President Barack Obama. 
 
 Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he will keep an “open mind” about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change. 
 
 After that meeting, he picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. ||||| President-elect Donald Trump is interviewed Saturday by Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in Trump Tower in New York. (Richard Drew/AP) 
 
 Global warming — “it’s a hoax.” 
 
 Donald Trump has said that more than once. 
 
 So it’s understandable that the request by the president-elect’s transition team for the names of individual Energy Department employees and contractors who worked on the issue makes them worry that the trick could be on them. 
 
 “There is major concern amongst my members,” said Jeff Eagan, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) chapter at the department’s headquarters building in Washington. He’s also a 17-year Energy employee but was speaking in his union capacity. “I have received lots of calls, emails, messages expressing shock and dismay.” 
 
 The scientists and their colleagues at Energy know global warming is real. What they don’t know is what Trump might do to those whose work has been in line with the science and the Obama administration, which has spoken about “the real and urgent threat of climate change.” 
 
 Perhaps Trump’s crew will do nothing. Trump more recently has said he has an open mind about global warming, so maybe he’s discarding his flat-Earth approach to the subject. Nonetheless, the transition team’s request to “provide a list of all Department of Energy employees or contractors who have attended” certain climate change meetings casts a shroud of apprehension over the workforce. The transition team ignored a request for comment. 
 
 [Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump] 
 
 Given civil service protections, it’s not likely department employees would be fired for working on climate change. There is good reason for concern, however. Trump advisers have urged him to fire feds faster, and Energy staffers know that protections for senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs have been weakened. But firing isn’t the only way to punish people. 
 
 “A greater concern would be that selected employees could be marginalized, i.e., ignored, by new leadership at the department solely based on unfounded conjecture that those employees cannot be trusted by the new political team,” said John Palguta, a civil service expert with decades of federal government experience. “The consequences for contract employees could be greater if a future decision not to renew a contract is influenced by the same unsupported speculation.” 
 
 On the question of providing names, Energy officials resolutely rejected the request, while reassuring workers. 
 
 “The Department of Energy received significant feedback from our workforce throughout the department, including the National Labs, following the release of the transition team’s questions. Some of the questions asked left many in our workforce unsettled,” said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a department spokesman. “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of DOE (Department of Energy) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people. We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department. 
 
 “We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.” Burnham-Snyder’s email had the last sentence in boldface for emphasis. 
 
 That’s the response members of Congress, who were outraged by Trump’s request, wanted. 
 
 “I am alarmed by the questionnaire sent by the Trump transition team to the Department of Energy seeking the names of career civil servants who have worked on climate change policy,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking Democrat in the House. “This raises serious concerns as to the motivation of such a request and raises questions of possible retribution for following President Obama’s policies.” 
 
 “This looks like a scare tactic to intimidate federal employees who are simply doing their jobs and following the facts,” added Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “I am sure there are a lot of career scientists and others who see this as a terrible message of fear and intimidation — ‘either ignore the science or we will come after you.’ ” 
 
 Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The Trump transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking officials there to identify which department employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation's carbon output. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post) 
 
 Trump’s request surprised employee leaders. 
 
 NTEU President Tony Reardon said his Energy Department members were “stunned” by the transition team request. 
 
 American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr., who also represents Energy employees, warned against “a return to the political witch hunts of the 1950s. President-elect Trump must instruct his transition team to cease this profoundly anti-democratic behavior immediately.” 
 
 Senior Executives Association President Bill Valdez said the questionnaire only increases the nervousness and apprehension that comes with any change of administrations. 
 
 “I can’t recall that I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Valdez, who worked at Energy for 20 years. “I guess there is a first time for everything.” 
 
 This needs to be the last. 
 
 1 of 81 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Inside Trump Tower: The epicenter of a presidential transition View Photos In Manhattan, the setting for Donald Trump’s reality-TV show and campaign headquarters now serves as the president-elect’s base of operations. Caption In Manhattan, the setting for Donald Trump’s reality-TV show and campaign headquarters now serves as the president-elect’s base of operations. Jan. 16, 2017 Martin Luther King III, son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., exits an elevator at Trump Tower in New York with President-elect Donald Trump. Mark Abramson/for The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings 
 
 It’s likely Earth’s hottest year on record — and some people are talking about global cooling 
 
 Trump urged to fire feds faster ||||| The Senate confirmed Former Texas governor Rick Perry to head the Energy Department. Here's what you need to know about him. (Bastien Inzaurralde,Julio Negron,Osman Malik/The Washington Post) 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department on Wednesday, seeking to put the former Texas governor in control of an agency whose name he forgot during a presidential debate even as he vowed to abolish it. 
 
 Perry, who ran for president in the past two election cycles, is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward fossil fuels, whose production he championed while serving as governor for 14 years. 
 
 His nomination — announced officially by Trump’s transition team a day after sources leaked the decision — stirred further alarm from environmental groups and others worried that the Trump administration will roll back efforts to expand renewable energy and give a powerful platform for officials questioning the scientific consensus on climate change. 
 
 The Energy Department was central to the 2011 gaffe that helped end his first presidential bid. Declaring that he wanted to eliminate three federal agencies during a primary debate in Michigan, Perry then froze after mentioning the Commerce and Education departments. “The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.” 
 
 [Trump taps Montana congressman Ryan Zinke, who frequently votes against environmentalists, as Interior secretary] 
 
 Later during the debate, Perry offered: “By the way, that was the Department of Energy I was reaching for a while ago.” 
 
 Speaking to reporters once the event was over, he said, “The bottom line is I may have forgotten energy, but I haven’t forgotten my conservative principles, and that’s what this campaign is really going to be about.” 
 
 Despite its name, most of the Energy Department’s budget is devoted to maintaining the nation’s stockpile of nuclear warheads and to cleaning up nuclear waste at sites left by military weapons programs. The department runs the nation’s national laboratories, sets appliance standards and hands out grants and loan guarantees for basic research, solar cells, capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion and more. 
 
 Four years after his first Oval Office bid, the former governor sought it once again in the big Republican field that included Trump. Perry touted the high rate of job growth and the low tax rate his state enjoyed under his leadership. At one point, he dismissed Trump’s campaign as a “barking carnival act.” 
 
 [What Rick Perry’s wink says about his own art of the deal] 
 
 The child of a cotton farmer and county commissioner from west Texas, Perry immersed himself in politics from a young age. He was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature but switched to the GOP when he ran for Texas agriculture commissioner. 
 
 As governor, he recruited out-of-state firms to Texas. In 2013, he starred in an ad that aired in California in which he declared that companies should visit his home state “and see why our low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving. To Texas.” 
 
 Salo Zelermyer, who served as a senior counsel at the Energy Department’s general counsel’s office under President George W. Bush and is now a partner at the Bracewell law firm, said Perry has proven “it is indeed possible to successfully balance appropriate environmental regulations with domestic energy production and use.” 
 
 “During his time in office, Perry embodied the type of ‘all of the above’ approach to U.S. energy production that many have advocated on both sides of the aisle,” Zelermyer said. “Rick Perry’s Texas was not only a world leader in oil and gas production; it was also a global leader in wind power and renewable energy investment. This approach is a big reason Texas experienced such enormous job growth during Perry’s tenure.” 
 
 [Trump says ‘nobody really knows’ if climate change is real] 
 
 But environmentalists take a dim view of Perry. The former governor has repeatedly questioned scientific findings that human activity is helping drive climate change. In 2011 during a presidential debate, he compared the minority of scientists who challenged this assumption to 17th-century astronomer Galileo, who was persecuted by the Catholic Church after suggesting that the Earth revolved around the Sun, rather than the reverse. 
 
 “The science is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just nonsense,” Perry said at the time. “Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell.” 
 
 In his 2010 book, “Fed Up!” Perry described the science showing that climate change was underway and caused by humans as a “contrived phony mess,” writing that those who embraced this idea “know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists, and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time.” 
 
 [Yes, Trump met with Al Gore. But his transition tells a very different climate story] 
 
 “Al Gore is a prophet all right, a false prophet of a secular carbon cult, and now even moderate Democrats aren’t buying it,” he added, referring to the former vice president and environmentalist. Gore met with Trump recently to discuss climate change. 
 
 Later, during the 2012 presidential campaign, Perry said, “There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.” 
 
 In fact, the top 10 hottest years on record have all been since 1998, and 2016 is expected to be the hottest year since formal record-keeping began in 1880. The 2014 summary report for policymakers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was endorsed by officials from nearly 200 countries, stated, “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic [human caused] emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history.” 
 
 [Trump has picked the most conservative EPA leader since 1981. This one will face much less resistance.] 
 
 “There is no doubt that Rick Perry is completely unfit to run an agency he sought to eliminate — and couldn’t even name. Perry is a climate change denier, opposes renewable energy even as it has boomed in Texas, and doesn’t even believe CO2 is a pollutant,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said in a statement. “Not only that, he is deep in the pocket of Big Polluters, who have contributed over $2.5 million to his presidential campaigns, a disturbing sign that they expected him to protect their profits in office, not do what’s best for the American people.” 
 
 Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary under President Clinton, said that Perry was a deal maker, political presence and good manager, and therefore a “sensible choice.” But he said that “my big concern is that he’s too tied to the fossil fuel industry and because of Donald Trump’s positions he will try to dismantle the very valuable renewable energy and climate change programs and policies that are a huge part of the DOE.” 
 
 Wind power did expand under Perry during his tenure in Texas — from 200 megawatts in 2000 to 14,098 megawatts in 2014, according to the American Wind Energy Association — and he supported the construction of transmission lines nearly a decade ago that helped bring wind-generated electricity to market. 
 
 “He created an environment conducive to economic investment through robust infrastructure and competitive power markets that allowed new technologies to enter,” said Tom Kiernan, the chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association, in a statement. “The Texas model under Gov. Perry’s leadership enabled the growth of low-cost wind energy that made the grid more diverse and reliable while saving consumers money.” 
 
 [Energy Dept. rejects Trump’s request to name climate change workers, who remain worried] 
 
 “The fact that Gov. Perry refuses to accept the broad scientific consensus on climate change calls into question his fitness to head up a science-based agency like DOE,” said Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. But, he added, as governor Perry “increased the ambition of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, directed state funds to innovative wind energy R&D initiatives, and created a ‘Competitive Renewable Energy Zone’ that helped expand transmission of renewables, bringing clean wind energy from rural communities to new state markets.” 
 
 However during a 2015 Iowa Agriculture Summit in Des Moines, the former governor said he opposed extending the federal tax credit for wind power. “I do if a state wants to do it,” he said. “I don’t at the federal level. I think all of these need to be looked at, whether it’s oil and gas, whether it’s the wind side, whether it’s the [Renewable Fuel Standard program] — I think all of them need to be put on the table, prove whether or not these are in fact in the best interest of this country.” 
 
 Referring to renewable sources, Jennifer Layke, the World Resources Institute energy program director, said: “The Department of Energy leads essential programs that drive innovation and fill important gaps to get new technologies off the ground. These are vital to keep the U.S. at the frontier of energy technology. In recent years, the Department of Energy has given U.S. businesses a significant boost to accelerate the development of battery storage, solar panels and electric vehicles. These programs must continue.” 
 
 Perry sits on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, the firm that is trying to complete work on the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Great Plains. Under President Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers recently decided to withhold a key permit from the company that is needed to finish the oil pipeline. The pipeline has drawn protests from activists who say that segment of the pipeline would disturb American Indian burial grounds and pollute the drinking water of the nearby Indian reservation. The Energy Department has not played a role in that decision-making process, however, and Trump has indicated he would allow the project to move forward once he takes office. 
 
 [DOE leaders refuse to identify specific climate change employees for Trump transition team] 
 
 The Energy Department Perry would take over has changed substantially since its creation in 1977 under President Carter on the heels of the oil crisis that struck after the Arab countries of OPEC imposed an embargo on the United States. In the 1970s, the agency focused on weapons maintenance and regulations. In the 1980s, nuclear weapons research took center stage. In the 1990s, arms control and anti-proliferation took priority. 
 
 But the last two secretaries, physicists Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz, have moved laboratories and other energy programs toward finding ways to slow climate change. The much derided loan and loan guarantee program — which stumbled with a half billion loss linked to solar panel maker Solyndra — has as of September had issued $31.98 billion in loans and loan guarantees for 30 projects, which have leveraged $50 billion in total project investment and created or saved 56,000 jobs. More than $1.65 billion in interest payments have already been paid. 
 
 Moniz also used his knowledge of physics and nuclear weapons, and the department’s national laboratories to play a key role in talks aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear program. Perry brings lacks that knowledge. 
 
 If confirmed, Perry would walk into an agency where many career civil servants are likely to be wary of him, not only because of his past pledge to abolish the department. Employees there are already on edge, given the fact that Trump’s transition team gave a questionnaire to DOE officials asking that they identify which employees have worked on either international climate negotiations or domestic initiatives to cut carbon. 
 
 Current DOE leaders have declined to provide any individual names of employees to Trump transition team members. 
 
 Speaking to reporters Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration needed to resist “what certainly could have been an attempt to target civil servants, career federal government employees … who are critical to success of the federal government’s ability to make policy, and their work transcends the term of any one president. That’s by design.” 
 
 “Our principle — this is principle that presidents of both parties have long abided by — is that we should observe the protections that are in place, that ensure that career civil servants are evaluated based on merit, and not on politics,” Earnest added, before tweaking Trump for his latest Cabinet pick. “And I’m sure the president-elect used the same kind of criteria when choosing his new Department of Energy Secretary as well. Don’t you think?” 
 
 1 of 35 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Here’s a look at Trump’s administration so far View Photos The men and women the president-elect has selected for his Cabinet and White House team. Caption The men and women the president-elect has selected for his Cabinet and White House team. Scott Gottlieb, nominee for commissioner of FDA President Trump is set to nominate Scott Gottlieb, a conservative physician and businessman with deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry, to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a White House official said. Courtesy of American Enterprise Institute/via Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Dan Balz contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more at Energy & Environment: 
 
 Trump names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general suing EPA on climate change, to head the EPA 
 
 Atmospheric levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are spiking, scientists report 
 
 Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings 
 
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– Donald Trump's transition team sent a memo with 74 questions to the Energy Department this week, among them a request for the names of people who have worked on climate change issues recently. Specifically, it requested a list of all employees and contractors who attended the UN's annual global climate talks during the past five years, Reuters reports. The Energy Department responded Tuesday with a refusal. "We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," says a department spokesperson, who added that the Trump team's request "left many in our workforce unsettled." Many media outlets are framing the Trump team's request as an attempt to "purge" the Energy Department of certain workers. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team," the Energy Department spokesperson continued. An official at the Union of Concerned Scientists applauded the Energy Department's response, calling the Trump team's request "absurd and dangerous," and an anonymous Department of Energy employee called the Trump memo "the first draft of an eventual political enemies list." White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said the request for a list of names "could have been an attempt to target civil servants ... who are critical to the success of the federal government's ability to make policy," and a civil service expert tells the Washington Post that even if named employees weren't fired, they could be "marginalized" in other ways. (Trump has made an interesting choice for the head of the Energy Department.)