Department of Energy climate office reportedly can't use the phrase 'climate change'

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last updated 30 March 2017

Employees at the Department of Energy's Office of International Climate and Clean Energy might soon start reporting to the Office of [Redacted].

This week, an office supervisor told staffers not to use the phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction," or "Paris Agreement" in memos and other written communication, people with knowledge of the matter told Politico Wednesday. During a meeting on Tuesday, the same day President Trump signed an executive order that reversed much of former President Barack Obama's climate change policies, senior officials told staffers such words gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry and White House advisers a "visceral reaction."

Staffers in the State Department and other Energy Department offices said they have not been told to stop using specific phrases, but "people are doing a lot of reading into tea leaves," one State Department official told Politico. "People are taking their own initiative to not use certain words based on hints from transition people. Everyone is encouraged to find different ways of talking about things." A spokeswoman for the Energy Department told Politico that "no words or phrases have been banned for this office or anyone in the department."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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