Top climate skeptic to lead Trump’s EPA transition team

Donald Trump is tapping a high-profile climate change skeptic to lead administration transition efforts for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Myron Ebell, director of energy and environment policy at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, is heading Trump’s EPA transition preparation, E&E Daily reported Monday.

{mosads}Ebell is an outspoken, longtime skeptic of the scientific consensus that human activity is dramatically changing the climate. He often refers to warnings about global warming as climate “alarmism” and is a vocal critic of President Obama’s climate change regulations.

Ebell has argued that the Clean Power Plan is illegal and that the Paris climate change agreement is unconstitutional.

Trump also doubts that human activity causes climate change.

The Republican presidential nominee’s EPA would be responsible for implementing his ambitious agenda of dismantling major pieces of Obama’s climate legacy, like the Clean Power Plan for power plants and the Paris agreement.

Republican energy lobbyist and strategist Mike McKenna is heading Trump’s Department of Energy transition team, and David Bernhardt, a lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and former Interior Department solicitor under President George W. Bush, is leading the transition for that department, E&E reported.

The Trump campaign didn’t respond to requests to confirm E&E’s report. Ebell referred questions to the campaign.