An official at the Department of Energy believes The New York Times engaged in fake news Thursday when the publication claimed the agency was vacating a commitment to clean energy.
“The premise of the New York Times article claiming that the Administration is retreating on its efforts to promote clean energy is entirely false,” spokesman Shaylyn Hynes said Friday in a press statement,
He was referring to a report stating the DOE is eliminating an office the agency believes to be a duplicate of a similar office. TheNYT’s suggested scrapping the foreign climate office was another example of the Trump administration retreating on climate-related issues.
Employees in the Office of International Climate and Technology were released so the Trump administration could cut bloat from within the agency, Hynes said Thursday. The office was opened in 2010 to help allies across the world kick-start technology reducing greenhouse gasses.
The office is part of the so-called Clean Energy Ministerial, a small collective of polluting nations such as China and India. Their sole focus was to develop technology fighting man-made climate change.
DOE’s decision was in keeping with many of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign promises. He campaigned during the presidential election on rolling back troves of former President Barack Obama’s climate regulations, as well as withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement.
Shutting down the Office of International Climate and Technology followed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s attendance at the most recent Clean Energy Ministerial in China. The agency did not respond to reporter’s request for comment.
The Trump administration’s move also comes after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed “outdated language” from its website in May, the night before activists planned protests targeting the Trump administration’s climate policies.
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