Climate deniers

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Trump’s EPA transition leader just blasted Ivanka and Rex Tillerson over climate policy. Ever since Trump’s election, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebell has been leading the charge to permanently hobble the Environmental Protection Agency. He formed a transition team for the agency that included some of the nation’s most prominent climate science deniers, and created a policy document that recommends withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, defunding international climate programs, withdrawing regulations on carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and somehow reversing the Supreme Court’s ruling saying carbon dioxide should be considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

But at a conference for climate science deniers on Friday, Ebell said there have been roadblocks to getting these things accomplished. “We do have a problem,” he said. “Swamp creatures are still there. They are trying to infiltrate the administration. And some of them are succeeding.” Amazingly, Ebell said one of those “swamp creatures” is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of oil giant ExxonMobil. Ebell blasted Tillerson for suggesting that the U.S. should remain a party to its international agreements to fight climate change, saying Tillerson just wants to “pal around” with diplomats on the subject. “Rex Tillerson may be from Texas, and he may have been CEO of Exxon, but he’s part of the swamp,” Ebell said.

Ebell also called out Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, who have reportedly been trying to convince the president to not be so awful on climate policy. Perhaps realizing the perils of singling out his former boss’s daughter, Ebell was more restrained with that criticism. “I don’t know that they really want to be identified as swamp creatures, and I’m not willing to do so,” Ebell said. “But at some point it needs to be pointed out that the people who elected Donald J. Trump are not wealthy Manhattanites, including his children.”

Trump’s EPA transition leader just blasted Ivanka and Rex Tillerson over climate policy. | New Republic

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor's sweeping plan to curb global warming. EPA chief Scott Pruitt says the executive order to be signed Tuesday will undo the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The 2015 rule has been on hold since last year while a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly Republican-led states and more than 100 companies. Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Pruitt said Trump's intention is to bring back coal-mining jobs and reduce the cost of electricity. Supporters of former President Barack Obama's plan say it would spur thousands of clean-energy jobs.

EPA Chief: Trump To Sign Order Undoing Obama Plan To Curb Global Warming