What is ironic regarding President Trump's choice for head of the Department of Energy?

A climate-change skeptic and former Texas governor, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 promising to dismantle the federal energy agency. The DOE is already resisting a Trump request to furnish lists of staffers working on climate issues, though his transition team has since backed away from the demand.

Explanation: It’s a reminder that the legions of U.S. federal workers are themselves a force in policy. Conspiracy-minded Americans worry about a powerful “deep state” that steers government activity regardless of who’s in elected office.

Until Trump picked him on Wednesday, Perry was best known for a 2011 debate gaffe in which he blanked on one of the federal departments he’d like to abolish. He could only name two of three, but later clarified that the other was the $30 billion Energy Department. That makes Perry the most ironic of Trump’s several fox-in-the-henhouse appointments. Last week Trump named Scott Pruitt, also a climate-change unbeliever, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

The cabinet provides figureheads, but the new administration will need government employees to carry out its bidding. It’s too early to tell whether the DOE’s early resistance is a prelude to a broader bureaucratic revolt, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. Much of the agency’s budget is dedicated to national-security matters, including testing and securing America’s nuclear weapons.

Innovations that improve efficiency or production are developed by individuals but become widespread once other people see their benefits. Once a technology or process proves successful, it spreads and changes the ways people live and work. Over time, the effects of these changes improve the quality of human life. The Agricultural Revolution involved inventions such as Jethro Tull’s seed drill and new practices such as selective livestock breeding. These innovations caused a massive increase in food production. In turn, the growth in food production led to a huge population increase.

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