Another Fossil-Fuel-Friendly Climate Skeptic Selected for Trump Cabinet

With McMorris Rodgers at the helm of the department that is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, including the National Parks system, will the manatees that currently grace the Department of Interior's homepage be replaced by oil derricks? In any case, expect at least two of the four priorities currently listed on their website to be removed:

• Climate Change
• Reducing Interior's Carbon Footprint

"She has consistently opposed Obama’s measures to fight climate change, and once argued that former Vice President Al Gore, a longtime advocate for steps to combat global warming, deserved an 'F' in science and an 'A' in creative writing," reported Ginger Gibson and Valerie Volcovici of the Reuters news agency.

The selection would be consistent with Trump's nomination of climate skeptic Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the same agency he is suing over energy and climate regulations.

"Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), a member of the GOP congressional leadership (is) a strident advocate for increased oil and gas drilling on federal lands," reports Evan Halper for the Los Angeles Times.

She would be charged with implementing Trump’s plan to aggressively roll back many of the environmental restrictions the Obama administration has placed on federal lands, which the president-elect wants to open up for substantially more drilling and mining.

"The League of Conservation Voters, which publishes a score card ranking the environmental record of each member of Congress, gave McMorris Rodgers a zero in its most recent ratings," add Gibson and Volcovici. "It was among several environmental groups that criticized her likely nomination."

"Donald Trump just posted a massive 'for sale' sign on our public lands," the LCV said in a statement.

McMorris Rodgers, the highest ranking Republican woman in the House of Representatives, would be the fourth woman to be selected for Trump's cabinet after Betsy DeVos and Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C) as Education Secretary and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, respectively, and Elaine J. Chao as Transportation Secretary.

Climate McCarthyism?

In related news, "President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team has circulated an unusual 74-point questionnaire at the Department of Energy that requests the names of all employees and contractors who have attended climate change policy conferences, as well as emails and documents associated with the conferences," reports Coral Davenport for The New York Times.

The questionnaire “suggests the Trump administration plans a witch hunt for civil servants who’ve simply been doing their jobs,” Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement.

Climate McCarthyism currently is a term coined by some in the science community who feel they are being pressured because they are not sufficiently alarmed by the scope of climate change. Thanks to Trump, it now takes on a more literal meaning as the investigations come from government, just as they did in the 1950s.

Correspondent's note: climate skeptic or climate denier?

Now that President-elect Trump is following-up on his famous campaign rhetoric that "climate change is a Chinese hoax," perhaps experts will look more into which term to apply to those who appear to question settled climate science: "Climate denier, skeptic, or contrarian?"

Hat tip to Mike Keenly.