If I were, say, a person with a sweet tooth for authoritarian solutions to the inconveniences of democratic government, this is the kind of thing that I would do. This would be what one might call a "purge." From Bloomberg:

The transition team has asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration's social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information on agency loan programs, research activities and the basis for its statistics, according to a five-page internal document circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday. The document lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, sources within the agency said.

It bears repeating here that the oceans don't care how many electoral votes you got.

The transition team questions includes perfunctory requests to identify current advisory committees, pending procurement decisions and positions subject to Senate confirmation — information critical to ensuring the agency's functions before and after Trump is sworn in. The document also signals which of the department's agencies could face the toughest scrutiny under the new administration. Among them: the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a 7-year-old unit that has been a critical instrument for the Obama administration to advance clean-energy technologies. Since going into operation in 2009, ARPA-E, as it is known, has provided about $1.3 billion in funding to more than 475 projects involving grid-scale batteries, power storage, biofuel production, wind turbines and other technology, according to a May report on the agency. Trump's energy landing team is seeking "a complete list of ARPA-E's projects" and wants information about the "Mission Innovation" and "Clean Energy Ministerial" efforts within the department.

The Republican Party—the party of Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, of national parks and the EPA—has abandoned science for temporary profit. It has gone completely mad and we will pay that price for it. And, still, the oceans will rise and it won't care how sorry we are for the whole business.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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