{"id":10817,"date":"2017-03-02T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T01:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/rick-perry-sworn-in-as-energy-secretary\/"},"modified":"2017-03-02T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T01:41:00","slug":"rick-perry-sworn-in-as-energy-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/rick-perry-sworn-in-as-energy-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Perry Sworn In As Energy Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maggie Penman<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Energy Secretary Rick Perry was sworn in Thursday, apparently having come to terms with heading the agency he once wanted to abolish.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Harnik\/AP<\/p>\n

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Andrew Harnik\/AP<\/p>\n

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Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is now the 14th U.S. Secretary of Energy, despite having once pledged to eliminate the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n

Or at least, he tried to pledge to eliminate the department \u2014 including once when he couldn’t think of its name<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perry was confirmed Thursday by the Senate in a 62-37 vote.<\/p>\n

During his confirmation hearing, Perry said, “My past statements made over five years ago about abolishing the Department of Energy do not reflect my current thinking.”<\/p>\n

That was not the only thing that Perry appeared to have changed his mind about. As NPR’s Jeff Brady has reported<\/a>, “At various times, Perry has questioned the role of human activity in climate change. At one campaign event, he accused scientists of manipulating data to continue gaining funding on research.”<\/p>\n

During his confirmation hearing, though, he said he believed that both natural and man-made activity were contributing to climate change.<\/p>\n

That hasn’t reassured environmental group 350.org<\/a>. Executive Director May Boeve said in a statement<\/a>: “Trump just added one more unqualified fossil fuel shill and climate-denier to his cabinet. As governor, Perry doled out millions to oil corporations while silencing the science that tells us our future depends on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.”<\/p>\n