The Department of Energy's Office of International Climate and Clean Energy has been directed not to use the phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction," and "Paris Agreement" in any official written communications, Politico reported.
Staffers learned about the ban Tuesday – the day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at EPA 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.
The office is the only one with "climate" in its name at the Department of Energy, and is an artifact of the Obama administration's clean energy initiatives that have been mostly cast aside under Trump, Politico reported.
A Department of Energy spokesperson denied there was a formal ban on language, Politico reported.
But one unnamed source told the outlet the office had consciously been choosing to use words like "jobs" and "infrastructure" to represent the Trump administration's priorities.