A week ago DECC's director of energy strategy and futures resigned, a story reported in the Guardian:
Brearley did not turn up to a renewable energy conference in Scotland, where he was meant to be speaking on the EMR on Monday.
Delegates to the event, organised by the Infrastructure Journal, were told the civil servant was not coming because he had left the department.
But a spokesman for DECC said Brearley was not formally leaving until the summer, having completed the main policy work on the EMR.
Today, one of his colleagues Ravi Gurumurthy, director of strategy, has gone too - he's off to work with David Miliband in New York.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the ship is sinking and that all manner of livestock is heading for safer ground.
Thanks for everything you have done for us, gentlemen.