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Articles on US Department of Energy

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A worker at the National Hurricane Center tracks weather over the Gulf of Mexico. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Politicians may rail against the ‘deep state,’ but research shows federal workers are effective and committed, not subversive

Years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that most of them are devoted civil servants who are committed to civic duty without regard to partisan politics.
Grid operators set the prices for energy markets and are structured to take the lowest prices – a disadvantage for coal and nuclear power.

The pull of energy markets – and legal challenges – will blunt plans to roll back EPA carbon rules

Two moves by the Trump administration signal a dramatic shift in energy policy to favor coal and nuclear, but markets forces and legal challenges mean changes could take years.
Lessons from the Lone Star State: A surge in wind power on the Texas grid didn’t cause reliability problems (and brought down electricity prices) because regulators improved the efficiency of wholesale electricity markets. Sarah Fields Photography/Shutterstock.com

Are solar and wind really killing coal, nuclear and grid reliability?

Energy Secretary Rick Perry wants to know if wind and solar are compromising the reliability of the grid and hurting coal power. The answer lies in his home state of Texas.
Obama has prioritized development of wind and solar in a number of ways, including installation on military bases. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Will President Obama’s clean energy legacy endure?

The Trump administration has the tools to slow the momentum Obama started on clean energy. Countering Trump are global market forces and state-level action.
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration supervises the removal of 68 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (enough for two nuclear weapons) from the Czech Republic in 2013. NNSA/Flickr

Lesson one for Rick Perry: The Energy Department doesn’t produce much energy

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has experience with energy, but if confirmed as secretary of energy, he should get ready to learn a lot about DOE’s big jobs: nuclear security and basic science research.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ who chaired the ancestor of today’s Department of Energy, had his security clearance revoked during the ‘Red Scare’ of the 1950s. AP Photo

Trump questionnaire recalls dark history of ideology-driven science

A historian of science and technology says Trump team’s request for names of Department of Energy employees working on climate change recalls worst excesses of ideology-driven science in government.

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