Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition

[Teddy B 17,252]

This should be interesting to watch.

Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition

Choosing Myron Ebell means Trump plans to drastically reshape climate policies

Credit: GAGE SKIDMORE Flickr

Donald Trump has selected one of the best-known climate skeptics to lead his U.S. EPA transition team, according to two sources close to the campaign.

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, is spearheading Trump’s transition plans for EPA, the sources said.

The Trump team has also lined up leaders for its Energy Department and Interior Department teams. Republican energy lobbyist Mike McKenna is heading the DOE team; former Interior Department solicitor David Bernhardt is leading the effort for that agency, according to sources close to the campaign.

Ebell is a well-known and polarizing figure in the energy and environment realm. His participation in the EPA transition signals that the Trump team is looking to drastically reshape the climate policies the agency has pursued under the Obama administration. Ebell’s role is likely to infuriate environmentalists and Democrats but buoy critics of Obama’s climate rules.

Ebell, who was dubbed an “elegant nerd” and a “policy wonk” by Vanity Fair, is known for his prolific writings that question what he calls climate change “alarmism.” He appears frequently in the media and before Congress. He’s also chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of nonprofits that “question global warming alarmism and oppose energy-rationing policies.”

Ebell appears to relish criticism from the left.

In a biography submitted when he testified before Congress, he listed among his recognitions that he had been featured in a Greenpeace “Field Guide to Climate Criminals,” dubbed a “misleader” on global warming by Rolling Stone and was the subject of a motion to censure in the British House of Commons after Ebell criticized the United Kingdom’s chief scientific adviser for his views on global warming.

More recently, Ebell has called the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan for greenhouse gases illegal and said that Obama joining the Paris climate treaty “is clearly an unconstitutional usurpation of the Senate’s authority.”

He told Vanity Fair in 2007, “There has been a little bit of warming ... but it’s been very modest and well within the range for natural variability, and whether it’s caused by human beings or not, it’s nothing to worry about.”

Ebell’s views appear to square with Trump’s when it comes to EPA’s agenda. Trump has called global warming “*********” and he has said he would “cancel” the Paris global warming accord and roll back President Obama’s executive actions on climate change (ClimateWire, May 27).

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition/

Edited to remove a word that bypassed the family friendly filter.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Teddy B

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

This should be interesting to watch.

Edited to remove a word that bypassed the family friendly filter.

Having worked in Industry for 30 years and as a Conservative,, err Middle of the road guy. I can say unequivocally that our environment and the safety of our workforce are much better because of the EPA and OSHA.

Anybody that would want to do away with it doesn't understand it or, has never worked in any job that has been impacted by it.

OSHA regs are pretty straightforward and are not overly intrusive and have saved many 10,000s of lives and serious injuries since its inception

The EPA, while important has mountains of overly burdensome regs that are hard to interpret and can be absurd at times. I have seen many times when we would ask the EPA if we could do something after trying to interpret a reg that would give anyone a headache. Their answer would be, we don't know do it and we will rule on it our figure it out. The EPA needs to totally revamped and streamlined, while continuing to do its important work in protecting our environment.