Report: Trump team questions costs of State Department's environment efforts
Donald Trump’s transition team is asking State Department officials to reveal how much of their funding goes towards international environmental groups, according to a new Washington Post report.
The query, posed in a list of questions to the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, asked, “How much does the Department of State contribute annually to international environmental organizations in which the department participates?”
State Department spokesperson John Kirby noted Wednesday, however, that there is “nothing out of hte norm” regarding questions being asked by the transition team.
The questions, Kirby told reporters, were “very much aligned with their need to better understand the bureaucracy and organization that they’re about to lead.”
“Nothing falls outside the normal inquiries,” Kirby said.
Despite State Department assurances, the inquiry has increased worries that the president-elect’s transition team is prioritizing a rollback of the Obama administration’s actions on climate change and conservation efforts.
Tom Steyer, a billionaire hudge fund manager and vocal environmentalist, expressed his concerns to CBS News following the report on the State Department.
“Donald Trump is hellbent on destroying the protections and programs the American people want and deserve,” Steyer said in a statement. “Trump needs to stop taking orders from Big Oil cronies and polluters and start listening to the American people.”
While Mr. Trump has met with prominent climate change activists since his election victory, the president-elect has also tapped several people to lead government agencies that have agendas contrary to Mr. Obama’s own climate and renewable fuel focus. For instance, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt -- who Mr. Trump has chosen to lead the Environmental Protection Agency -- is a vocal denier of climate change science and has even sued the Obama administration over its clean power plant rules. Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, oil magnate Rex Tillerson, has said climate change could pose “significant” risks, but there is little indication that the Exxon Mobil executive will prioritze the issue.
Mr. Trump also threatened during his campaign to scuttle the United States’ involvement in the landmark Paris climate change accord, an international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and try to reverse global warming effects. The Paris treaty holds the U.S. accountable for donating $3 billion over four years to the Green Climate Fund, which is devoted to helping poorer countries weather the detrimental effects of climate change.
Similarly, the Energy Department was also recently sent a questionnaire to divulge the names of employees who had worked on climate change policies. The department said it would not be complying with that request, and the Trump transition team disavowed the original questionnaire, saying it “was not authorized.”
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment confirming the Post report.
According to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, of the State Department’s 2016 budget of $30.91 billion, about $128 million was allocated for natural resources and the environment.