Before Becoming Trump's Top Energy Aide, Mike Catanzaro Peddled Climate Change Denial as a Writer

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Mike Catanzaro, President Donald Trump’s recently mintedย top energy aide, has officially begun his first weekย on the job at the White House. He was hired to move policy measures throughย federal energy and environmental agencies in a synergistic way.

A long-time oil and gas industry lobbyist who has spent his careerย passingย inย and out of the government-industry revolving door, Catanzaroย actually got his start as a writer. Working for the conservative newspapersย Human Eventsย and Evans-Novak Political Report, Catanzaro’s views on climate change โ€” and climate denial โ€” were on full display in articles published during his formative years as an up-and-coming conservativeย star.

DeSmog has reviewed articles found in the Human Events archives, no longer found on the publication’s website, and they shed new light on Catanzaro and his views as Trump’s right-hand man on climate, energy, andย environmentalย policy.

Catanzaro’sย articles, obtained through the University of Wisconsin Libraries System, purportย thatย mainstream U.S. environmental groups are driven by Marxist ideologyย and that global warming is a โ€œliberal conceptโ€ (as opposed to a scientific reality). They also reveal him writing puff pieces on organizations such as the climate change-denying Heartland Instituteย and individuals such as prominent climate denier Fred Singer.

โ€œAlarmismโ€

In March 2001, Catanzaro wrote an article titled โ€œEnergy Secretary May Be Barrier to Sound Energy Policyโ€ about then-President George W. Bush’s U.S. Treasury Secretary,ย Paul O’Neill, which coveredย O’Neill’s views on what he referred to as โ€œglobal warmingโ€ (in scare quotes). Catanzaro found O’Neill’s posture on climate problematic, as O’Neill wanted the Bush administration’s policy to be โ€œgrounded inย science.โ€ย 


Image Credit: Human Events; University of Wisconsin-Madisonย Libraries

Citing O’Neill’s โ€œalarmism,โ€ Catanzaro wrote that there is a โ€œlack of consensus on whether global warming is occurringย or what its impact on climate and weather might be.โ€ ย Yet that same year, the United Nationsย Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its more than 1,000 page assessment, assembled and reviewed by hundreds of scientists,ย catalogingย evidence for exactly such aย scientificย consensusย that humans are changing the climate and some of theย resultingย impacts.ย 

โ€œNatural and human systems are expected to be exposed to climatic variations such as changes in the average, range, and variability of temperature and precipitation, as well as the frequency and severity of weather events,โ€ wrote the IPCC. โ€œSystems also would be exposed to indirect effects from climate change such as sea level rise, soil moisture changes, changes in land and water condition, changes in the frequency of fire and pest infestation, and changes in the distribution of infectious disease vectors andย hosts.โ€

โ€œGood Things Usuallyย Happenโ€

In a 1997 profile of the Heartland Institute, one of the pioneering nodes of the climate change denial and anti-environmental machine, Catanzaro described the free-market think tankย as a place where โ€œgood things usuallyย happen.โ€ย 

โ€œThe most important subject the institute is dealing with right now is environmentalism,โ€ he wrote. โ€œOf particular interest โ€ฆ is global warmingย and Heartland has been ahead of the curve in unraveling some of the confusions and obfuscations spewed by left-wing environmentalists on that veryย issue.โ€

Though funded by wealthy donors and corporations includingย ExxonMobil, Catanzaro wrote that โ€œHeartland remains a testament to the power and influence of theย grassroots.โ€

Catanzaro would, later in his career, become a lobbyist for Koch Industriesย and other companies such as Noble Energy, Devon Energy, Encana Oil and Gas, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), and Hess Corporation. The Koch networkย has led the way in fundingย climate denial in recent years and has used โ€œastroturfโ€ techniques, or seemingly grassroots movements which are in reality fronts for corporateย interests.

โ€œBlameย Yellowstoneโ€

In January 1998, Catanzaro penned an article about naturally occurring greenhouse gas emissions emanating from Yellowstone National Park’s geysers. Pointing to a study published in December 1997, his piece wasย titled, โ€œIf the World is Warming, Blame Oldย Faithful.โ€


Image Credit: Human Events, University of Wisconsin-Madisonย Libraries

The study he cited said that Yellowstone’s geothermal features emit 4.4 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of about 10 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. Even with coal-fired power plants in decline in the U.S. today, there are still 363 plants open for business andย located in the U.S., according toย U.S. Energy Information Administration data. That would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of 36 Yellowstones, according to the study cited byย Catanzaro.

But he extends his argument further, also stating that โ€œonly about 2%-3% of greenhouse gases actually come from anthropogenic, or man-made, sources, such as smokestacks or power plants.โ€ Yet aย 2011 study says that at least 74 percent of global warming can be linked directly to human activity.ย 

โ€œIt is thus extremely likely (>95% probability) that the greenhouse gas induced warming since the mid-twentieth century was larger than the observed rise in global average temperatures, and extremely likely that anthropogenic forcings were by far the dominant cause of warming,โ€ explains that 2011 study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. โ€œThe natural forcing contribution since 1950 is nearย zero.โ€

Catanzaro’s Human Eventsย article also quotes Bonner Cohen, a long-time climate change denier who ran the publication EPA Watch, as an expert on the issue of naturally occurring climateย change.

Anti-Kyoto Climateย Deal

As a candidate, Trump pledged to โ€œcancelโ€ the United Nationsย Paris climate deal and โ€œstop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.โ€ Based on his top energy aide’s earlyย writings at Human Events, it appears President Trump has hired a comrade-in-arms for theย cause.

โ€œThe Clinton Administration has launched an all-out propaganda campaign to facilitate passage of a United Nations-sponsored global-warming treaty that, if ratified, could wreck havoc on middle-class American families while allowing major polluters such as Communist China and India to escape the treaty’s restrictions on so-called ‘greenhouse’ gas emissions,โ€ Catanzaro wrote in 1997 his article,ย โ€Clinton Launches Propaganda Campaign for Global-Warming Treaty.โ€ย 

โ€œWorse, there is no scientific consensus that global warming is indeed taking place โ€” the reason Clinton has mounted a massive propaganda campaign,โ€ heย opined.

In that same article, Catanzaro also referred to climate change as a โ€œreligious belief,โ€ while quoting prominent climate deniers such as Fred Singer to make his case. Catanzaro also wrote a profile piece on Singer in November 1997, in which he juxtaposed Singer with other scientists whom he said were guilty of โ€œusing pseudo-scientific postulates to scare the public into accepting the disastrous international global-climate treaty that will be debated in Kyoto, Japan, nextย month.โ€

โ€œContrary to what [global-warming proponents] say, there is no global warming,โ€ Singer told Catanzaro for that article. โ€œAnd contrary to what [those proponents] say, there is no scientific consensusย either.โ€

โ€œNo Connectionโ€ vs.ย 97%

Though he’d eventually leave the writing worldย to work for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which wasย then chaired by infamous climate denierย Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Catanzaro continued to write on the sideย for Human Events until landing a policyย job in the Bush White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). During that time, he wrote articles such as โ€œGlaciers, โ€˜Global Warming,โ€™ and NY Times Hysteria,โ€ โ€œBe Afraid!!! Global Warming and Malaria,โ€ โ€œMore Leftist Enviro Scare Tactics,โ€ and โ€œNo Global Warming Consensus.โ€

Catanzaroย has alsoย written that โ€œthere is no connection between global warming and extreme weather,โ€ as well asย โ€œwhen it comes to the science of global warming, the alarmists, of course, think all the complexities and uncertainties have been settled.โ€ Meanwhile, 97 percent of peer-reviewed scientific studies on climate change have concluded that climate change isย caused byย humans.

Catanzaro’s publishing historyย hasย surfaced at the same time sea ice levels have hit record lows at both poles. Scientists peg this trendย to human-caused climate change, which has contributed to weather patterns such as the โ€œPolar Vortex.โ€

โ€œGreenhouse gases emitted through human activities and the resulting increase in global mean temperatures are the most likely underlying cause of the sea ice decline,โ€ wrote the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which is based at the University of Colorado and funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

When Alex Formuzis,ย Vice President of Communications for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), viewedย some ofย Catanzaro’s past writings, heย pointed toย Catanzaro as part of a broader trend amongย Trump’s energy, environment, and climateย team.

โ€œTapping Mr. Catanzaro as a White House energy advisor fits with President Trumpโ€™s agenda of promoting the interests of fossil fuel industry over the environment and public health,โ€ Formuzis told DeSmog. โ€œCatanzaro has a long history as a lobbyist for many of the same companies that had significant influence over EPA administrator Scott Pruitt when he was attorney general ofย Oklahoma.โ€

Catanzaro did not return DeSmog’s request forย comment.

Research contributed by A.C. Tyler.

Image Credit: C-SPANย Screenshot

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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