
 
 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 ||||| 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. ||||| There are no items to show.
– 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.)