Mike Segar/Reuters
Staffers at the Department of Energy say President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is seeking a list of employees who have worked to cut carbon emissions, a move many fear means an impending purge of those fighting climate change. A report by ABC News late Friday said staffers had received a 74-point memo on Tuesday asking for information on several of the department’s programs, as well as a list of names of staffers who worked on certain projects. One question specifically asks for the names of those who attended international conferences on climate change. “It looks like Trump and his administration are planning a political witch hunt which has no place in American government: purging or marginalizing anyone who has worked on the issue of climate change,” John Coequyt, climate policy director at the Sierra Club, said in a statement on Friday. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax created by the Chinese. His choice of Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, to head the Environmental Protection Agency has further fueled fears that the Trump administration will undo all progress made fighting global warming by the Obama administration.