Trump administration silences the Department of Energy’s Sunshot team

President Trump has told the United States Department of Energy Sunshot team that they are not allowed to communicate any information to the public until political appointments are made to review all of said communications per a report from Samantha Page at ThinkProgress.

The directive was given at a staff meeting, according to the email sent Thursday morning, and came from Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Steven Chalk. “I want to share that we are PROHIBITED from any social media post (from personal or business handles) regarding your work, attendance at any meeting, etc until further notice, per Steve Chalk, acting EE-1,” the email reads.

This action follows other actions by the President that might be perceived as Orwellian – requesting the EPA remove all Climate Change information (before a judge halted them) from their website and creating a new term – ‘alternative facts.’

From the Sunshot website,

The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a national effort to support solar energy adoption by making solar energy affordable for all Americans through research and development efforts in collaboration with public and private partners. SunShot funds cooperative research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects by private companies, universities, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity.

Sunshot research goals have been featured on Electrek and are partially credited with helping lower the price of solar power as much as 75% since 2010. Any information released by the Sunshot group would be of a technical nature that communicates research advancements. The Sunshot team does not research climate change or pollution, which makes the move to silence them even more strange.

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Full disclosure: I get a commission. Tweet me for feedback on pricing.

For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articles.