Rick Perry Jokes About His Incompetence When Asked About These Darn Energy Department Cuts

Rick Perry’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Energy has thus far mostly been various senators using the word “science” as code for “addressing climate change” or “drilling Alaska,” depending on their party’s alignment. Only Senator Stabenow and Senator Mazie Hirono have asked Perry directly about Trump’s plans to cut out the Energy Department’s ability to address the former.

Hirono began her questioning of Perry with the insistence that he restrain his answers to “yes or no,” perhaps learning from Stabenow, who sacrificed her time to explaining the sheer fuckery of cutting all the offices from the Department of Energy that are focused on renewable resources. Hirono asks how Perry’s policy on energy could be an “all of the above” strategy when there are plans to cut the Department of Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Electricity, and the Office of Fossil Energy (which explores technology for limiting carbon dioxide emissions).