President-elect Trump’s transition team has begun asking the Energy Department hard questions about how it has been run under the Obama administration, which may mean Trump is preparing to announce his pick for energy secretary.
The Trump transition team’s focus appears to be policies at the department that the GOP has scrutinized and investigated over the last eight years, including the agency’s loan guarantee program, the use of a White House greenhouse gas pricing metric used in regulations, and which employees have attended United Nations climate meetings, according to a list of questions sent to the department this week.
A source with the transition team said the questions they are asking the Energy Department are “designed to ensure transparency on the formation of existing, Obama-era policy,” reported Bloomberg.
The list of questions also included the agency’s statistical and analysis arm, the Energy Information Administration, asking about how it is staffed and how it conducts its analyses and reports. It also asks questions about how it could help nuclear power plants looking to shut down.
The president-elect has reportedly been vetting a number of candidates for the position, including Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both from major energy-producing states. Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who was Trump’s energy adviser during the campaign, is also in the running. Ray Washburne, an investor who is a major Republican fundraiser and was national finance chairman at the Republican National Committee, also has been mentioned.
