DOE Employees Told to Avoid Words Like ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Clean Energy,’ Internal Email Shows

WASHINGTON – An internal email from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy reportedly instructs employees to avoid using terms including “climate change,” “decarbonization,” “clean energy,” and “energy transition”, NPR reports. The office, the federal government’s largest funder of clean energy research, had a $3.46 billion budget in 2023 and supports projects in solar, wind, hydrogen, and geothermal energy.

The email, first reported by Politico, advises staff to exclude these terms from websites, internal reports, and public documents, including federal funding announcements.

The Energy Department denies the directive, with press secretary Ben Dietderich saying there is “no directive” restricting employees from using such phrases and reaffirming the department’s commitment to transparency on climate science.

The guidance comes amid broader Trump administration efforts to limit climate-related research and public access to information, including canceled research funding, shuttered federal websites, and the removal of climate change references from the DOE website earlier in the administration.