--- title: Donald Trump Transition Says Energy Questions Not Authorized description: Donald Trump's transition team said on Wednesday that a controversial questionnaire sent to the Department of Energy had not been authorized canonical: https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-14T17:30:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T14:35:13.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Transition Says Controversial Climate Questionnaire Wasn’t Authorized og:description: The questionnaire had asked for the names of employees who worked on climate change issues og:url: https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted828a2948c1b9a4/6988b2f8f887dc6fade987f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4614 og:image:height: 2595 og:image:alt: Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump USA Thank You Tour 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Transition Says Controversial Climate Questionnaire Wasn’t Authorized twitter:description: The questionnaire had asked for the names of employees who worked on climate change issues twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted828a2948c1b9a4/6988b2f8f887dc6fade987f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Transition Team Says Controversial Climate Questionnaire Wasn’t Authorized > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 2:35 PM UTCPublished: Dec 14, 2016 5:30 PM UTC  Donald Trump at The Ohio State Universtiy in Columbus, Ohio on Dec. 08, 2016. Donald Trump at The Ohio State Universtiy in Columbus, Ohio on Dec. 08, 2016. Jabin Botsford—Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 2:35 PM UTCPublished: Dec 14, 2016 5:30 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod)’s transition team said on Wednesday that a controversial questionnaire sent to [the Department of Energy](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod) asking for the names of staffers working on climate change had not been authorized. “The questionnaire was not authorized or part of our standard protocol. The person who sent it has been properly counseled,” the transition team said in an emailed statement. The questionnaire, first reported by [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-09/trump-team-s-memo-hints-at-broad-shake-up-of-u-s-energy-policy) last week, asked the Department of Energy to provide names of employees who attended U.N. climate conferences and worked on an initiative to measure the social cost of carbon dioxide emissions. The questionnaire raised concerns within the agency’s ranks that the nascent Trump Administration might try to purge the department of staffers who worked on global-warming issues. “What was disturbing was what seemed to be targeting of career service employees,” said Jonathan Levy, a former deputy chief of staff at the department. “The people at the Department of Energy are the most important asset at the department, and they’re incredibly talented.” Trump has signaled that he intends to keep a campaign promise to roll back the environmental regulations put in place under President Obama. His choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has [sued the agency](http://time.com/4594238/donald-trump-scott-pruitt-epa/?iid=sr-link1) on multiple occasions to block climate regulations. His Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson is the CEO of ExxonMobil and an [opponent](http://time.com/4598499/rex-tillerson-donald-trump-exxon-mobil-climate-change/) of many policies to address climate change. And his pick to lead the Department of Energy, former Texas governor Rick Perry, has questioned the scientific consensus of climate change. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Transition Team Says Controversial Climate Questionnaire Wasn’t Authorized","datePublished":"2016-12-14T17:30:01.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T14:35:13.000Z","description":"The questionnaire had asked for the names of employees who worked on climate-change issues","url":"https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/","keywords":["energy","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted828a2948c1b9a4/6988b2f8f887dc6fade987f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted828a2948c1b9a4/6988b2f8f887dc6fade987f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump USA Thank You Tour 2016","caption":"Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump USA Thank You Tour 2016","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/energy/","name":"energy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4602315/donald-trump-energy-questionnaire/","name":"Donald Trump's Transition Team Says Controversial Climate Questionnaire Wasn’t Authorized"}}]}] ```