On Monday, his campaign announced that climate skeptic Myron Ebell would head the transition of the EPA under a Trump presidency. This is just the most recent of many Trump appointments that make environmentalists—or anyone who cares about the Earth—cringe.
Ebell is the director of energy and environment policy at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute. In the past, Ebell has said that climate change is not caused by humans, that the Clean Power Plan is illegal, and that the Paris climate change agreement is unconstitutional.
This comes a week after it was reported that Forrest Lucas—co-founder of Lucas Oil—is on Trump’s short list for interior secretary. Lucas is considered a risky pick by environmentalists who aren’t keen on an oil exec calling the shots on land management. (Lucas also recently produced The Dog Lover, a film that says puppy mills aren’t so bad.)
Add these to names such as Mike McKenna, head of Trump’s Department of Energy transition team; Harold Hamm, oil tycoon and Trump energy adviser; and David Bernhardt, a former Interior Department solicitor under George W. Bush who is on the short list to lead Trump’s Department of Energy. You get a very conservative and oil-influenced team of policy makers.