"Landing Team" for Trump's EPA: Climate Science Deniers and a Lawyer Known For Harassing Climate Scientists

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President-elect Donald Trumpโ€™s future Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is really taking shape with his newly announced EPA chief (and friend of the fossil fuel industry), Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and the addition of lawyerย David W. Schnareย to the so-called EPA โ€œlandingย team.โ€

Schnare is a lawyer known for filing several onerous legal requests to see the email inboxes of climate scientists and EPA administrators. He is now one of seven people chosen to coordinate information gathering for Trump’s future administrationย with current staff at the EPA.

Thisย group of seven picked by Trumpโ€™s transition team constitutes individualsย almost universally dismissive of climate science, and many have strongly attacked the EPAโ€™s climateย plans.ย 

Most individuals on this EPA landing teamย are drawn from conservative think tanks already working to underplay the risks of human-caused climate change while attacking the Obama administrationโ€™s EPA rulings on clean energy and climateย change.

Trying to Schnare Climateย Scientists

Schnare, like several others named on the EPA landing team, has also worked to downplay or challenge the legitimacy of the well-established science linking dangerous climate change to fossil fuelย burning.

In a climate change debate last year, Schnare continually focused on what he claimed were uncertainties in climateย science.ย 

Previously logging 30 years as an EPA lawyer, Schnare today is general counsel and director at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), which used to be called the American Tradition Institute, but tax records show he draws no salary from thatย group.ย ย 

However, he is also director and chairman of FME Law, also known as the George Mason Environmental Law Clinic, where he does draw aย salary.

Both E&E Legal and FME Law are known for launching multiple actions targeting the emails of climate scientists and government administrators working at the EPA.

In one case, E&E Legal has tried to force the University of Arizona to give up 13 years’ worth ofย email records fromย two climateย scientists.

Many have described Schnareโ€™s activities as harassment. During his time at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, Schnare sought toย uncover evidence of scientific malpractice by pursuing the emails of climate scientist Michael Mann, who at the time was a professor at the University of Virginia. Schnare ultimately lost the case.

Recent bankruptcy filings have revealed financial ties between FME Law and E&E Legal and the coalย industry.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2014, Arch Coal donated $10,000 to E&Eย Legal.

Schnareโ€™s associate at E&E Legal, lawyer and climate science denier Christopher Horner, has also been paid by coal firm Alpha Natural Resources.

The Rest of the Team: Deniers and EPAย Critics

The Trump transition team has so far announced seven appointees to the so-called โ€œlanding teamsโ€ that are tasked with visiting EPA offices to prepare the ground for the newย administration.

Alongside Schnare on the EPA landing team is Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.ย 

Since the late 1990s, Ebell has worked to deny the science linking fossil fuel emissions to dangerous climate change, while attacking renewable energy solutions and the EPA.

Amy Oliver Cooke, of the Colorado-based think tank the Independence Institute, is also named on the โ€œlanding team.โ€ Cooke is another critic of the EPA, who has sharp words forย renewable energy policy while promoting hydraulicย fracturing.

Also joining the โ€œlanding teamโ€ is David Kreutzerย of the Heritage Foundation. He has also claimed that there is nothing unusual about recent record breaking hot years.

Austin Lipari, of the The Federalist Society, is another addition to the lineup.ย The Federalist Society is heavily funded by rich conservatives through two linked funds: Donors Trust and Donors Capitalย Fund.ย 

Those two funds have also been key sources of funding for climate science denial groups, including the CEI.

The National Rifle Association also gave $225,000 to the Federalist Society inย 2014.

Another member of the EPA โ€œlanding teamโ€ is David Stevenson, of the Delaware-based libertarian think tank the Caeser Rodneyย Institute.ย 

In late 2015, Stevenson claimed that โ€œthe factsโ€ showed โ€œno upward trend in global average temperatures for the last eighteen yearsโ€ and claimed there would only be โ€œmodest impactsโ€ on the environment from globalย warming.

Rounding things out, the Trump transition teamย named former George W. Bush eraโ€“EPA staffer George Sugiyama.ย Sugiyama also served as legal adviser to the Republican minority, led by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, on the Senate environmentย committee.ย 

Inhofe is arguably the best-known climate science denier in Congress and famously declared climate change to be aย hoax.

In a statement, Schnare said his appointment would โ€œupset some of you and will pleaseย others.โ€

He said the landing teamโ€™s job would be to โ€œseek the information the transition team needs to create its action plans,โ€ but he would โ€œnot be airing my own opinions until our job isย done.โ€

Main image: David Schnare speaking at a Heartland Institute conference for climate science deniers in Juneย 2011.

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