Did the Energy Department ban use of climate change terminology in communications?

Sources within the U.S. Department of Energy say the agency has banned climate-change terminology, Eric Wolff reports for Politico. A supervisor at the agency's international climate office reportedly told staff "not to use the phrases 'climate change', 'emissions reduction' or 'Paris Agreement' in written memos, briefings or other written communication." DOE spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler denied the allegations, telling Politico, "No words or phrases have been banned for this office or anyone in the department."

Wolff writes, "Employees of DOE’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday, the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters to reverse most of former President Barack Obama's climate regulatory initiatives. Officials at the State Department and in other DOE offices said they had not been given a banned words list, but they had started avoiding climate-related terms in their memos and briefings given the new administration's direction on climate change."