Former TX Gov And Wind Builder Perry To Head Dept Of Energy

Trump taps former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head Energy Department he once vowed to abolish

Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, December 13, 2016 (Washington Post)

Editor’s note: click through for a lengthy profile of the nominee

“President-elect Donald Trump has picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department…[Perry could] shift the department away from renewable energy and toward fossil fuels, whose production he championed as governor while serving for 14 years…[M]ost 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 everything from basic research to solar cells to capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion…[As governor, Perry reportedly embodied an] ‘all of the above’ approach to U.S. energy…[In that time, 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…[I]f confirmed, Perry will walk into an agency where many career civil servants will likely be wary of him…[and on edge after] Trump’s transition team gave a questionnaire to DOE officials asking they identify which employees have worked on either international climate negotiations or domestic initiatives to cut carbon.” click here for more

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