Trump’s full EPA transition team named

Dr. David Schnare writes via email:

In addition to Myron Ebell and Amy Oliver , the following were just named as on the “landing team”, the group who will go to EPA to collect information needed for the transition. Here is my statement:

The President-Elect’s Transition team named me and others to the EPA Transition Landing Team today.  This will upset some of you and will please others.  My approach, and that of the entire transition team, is to be highly professional as we seek the information the transition team needs to create its action plans.  Our job will be to ask appropriate questions and to listen.  Any of you that would like to meet with our team, please let me know and I will transmit that to our team. In the mean time, I will have nothing to share on the team’s activities and I’ll not be airing my own opinions until our job is done. Best to you all.  – David Schnare

Environmental Protection Agency

David Kreutzer

Employer (current or most recent): The Heritage Foundation

Funding source: Private

Austin Lipari

Employer (current or most recent): The Federalist Society

Funding source: Volunteer

David Schnare

Employer (current or most recent): Energy and Environment Legal Institute

Funding source: Volunteer

David Stevenson

Employer (current or most recent): Caesar Rodney Institute

Funding source: Volunteer

George Sugiyama

Employer (current or most recent): The Sugiyama Group LLC

Funding source: Volunteer

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Amber
December 5, 2016 11:06 pm

Al Gore looked shaken but not stirred in the Trump Building picture .
The party is over and the Arctic will still have lots of ice unfortunately .
Here is a guy who goes out of his way to sink a Trump Presidency
then comes in looking for $$ Billions to prop up the hot air industry and to bank roll foreign governments
stealing American jobs .
Well let the activism and threats begin, but remember there are over 60 million people who aren’t buying the scam .

Griff
Reply to  Amber
December 6, 2016 4:53 am

Well, the arctic doesn’t have lots of ice right now, even though its the middle of winter:
http://psc.apl.uw.edu/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/
“November 2016 sea ice volume was 7,800 km3 , about 2500 km3 below the 2015 value and the lowest for any November on record exceeding the prior record set in 2012 by about 400 km3 . This record is in part the result of anomalously high temperatures throughout the Arctic for November discussed here. 2016 November volume was 61% below the maximum November ice volume in 1979, 48% below the 1979-2015 mean, and about 1.1 standard deviations below the long term trend line.
Average ice thickness in September 2016 over the PIOMAS domain was also one of the lowest on record but just a small amount above the 2012 record”
what makes you think it will be any better during the next melting season?
It hasn’t recovered to pre-2007 levels in a decade…

stevekeohane
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 5:08 am

Winter hasn’t started yet, it’s over a fortnight away. So clueless…

Griff
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 8:17 am

winter hasn’t started? Well its pitch black in the arctic right now and it is the freezing season…
so semantics aside, would you explain how we have such a low extent and volume at whatever season you think it is?

JPeden
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 8:50 am

Griff
December 6, 2016 at 4:53 am
Well, the arctic doesn’t have lots of ice right now, even though its the middle of winter…. [Say what?]
Regardless, since the Antarctic Ice has been increasing steadily since before the TAR, the Arctic Ice is irrelevant. CO2’s “Polar Amplification” is hypothesized to affect both Poles. That makes CO2’s “Polar Amplification” another Empirically Falsified CO2-Climate Change Prediction.
Who/what is the ~”secretive entity” which is funding your disinformation? What does it have to gain in doing so?
Save yourself, Griff, before it’s too late!

Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 8:53 am

Tis the season to be Jolly Griff. Fa-la-la-la-laaa La-la-la-laaa.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:00 am

For god’s sake Griff, Winter just started. It takes some time for water to freeze even after the temps drop below freezing. And stop with the “such a low extent” nonsense. We do not have nearly enough quality data to know what the natural variations in Arctic ice extent are, let alone what constitutes a low or very low extent. Maybe in another 20 or 30 years we’ll have a better idea, but right now it’s pure speculation.

David Smith
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 10:33 am

So there’s less ice?
Good. More room for shipping routes and more access to drill for oil and gas. What’s not to like Griff?

MarkW
Reply to  Amber
December 6, 2016 11:10 am

It’s not the middle of winter, that’s almost two months off.
A few months ago, the arctic had a lot of ice for that time of year, but you said nothing?
Are you a hypocrite or merely being paid to look stupid?

Griff
December 6, 2016 1:03 am

I don’t suppose anyone here is concerned that all these people work for privately funded right wing think tanks – most of which have opposition to climate science as a key objective and the first 3 listed having verifiably received large amounts from the Koch brothers and Exxon?
you do realise that mush of the ‘evidence’ against climate change is manufactured by these groups, with fossil fuel funding?
(just google it, for heaven’s sake)

Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:00 am

Griff, no one cares if they are lizardoid aliens from the constellation Draco funded by Ming the Merciless. If they understand that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant then they got that bit right at least.

JPeden
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:16 am

Griff
December 6, 2016 at 1:03 am
I don’t suppose anyone here is concerned that all these people work for privately funded right wing think tanks
No, only that very sadly for you, you missed your chance to escape James Hansen’s Prediction of CO2’s “Destruction of Creation” when the Hale Bopp Comet towed your Mother Ship out of range! So now you’ll just have to face the infernal advent of Global Warming’s Palm Trees, Mariachi Boys, and Girls Gone Wild along with the rest of us!…snif

Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:25 am

Griff says
you do realise that mush of the ‘evidence’ against climate change is manufactured by these groups, with fossil fuel funding?
Griff, have you learned absolutely nothing from your time on this site? Evidently so. Most of the evidence is just the data itself, and an actual read of what the actual science says. If the evidence is “manufactured” then the guilty parties are NASA (data collection), their counterparts in other countries who do the same (JAXA for example) and the analysis of this data done by the IPCC, a body of the United Nations which comprises the IPCC reports from the top scientists all over the earth. Have you even read them?
You just accused YOUR side of the debate of “manufacturing” the evidence presented by MY side of the debate.

MarkW
Reply to  davidmhoffer
December 6, 2016 11:14 am

Griff isn’t here to learn. He’s here to preach.

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 10:01 am

Wrong, they are opposed to climate pseudoscience. And they don’t need to have “evidence” against climate change. They know, just as all of us do, that climate change is real, it’s natural, and nothing to fear unless we get a significant cooling period, which is very possible.

David Smith
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 10:42 am

“Right wing”
What, like Trump and the Republican Party? How odd.
“Privately funded”
You mean they don’t work for free? How odd.
“Received large amounts from the Koch brothers and Exxon”
You mean they weren’t funded by Soros? How odd.
“Evidence against climate change is manufactured”
Ha ha ha ha! You’re odd Grff.

MarkW
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 11:13 am

Poor little Griffie is spinning so fast that he’s threatening to fly apart.
First, just because a lot of your fellow conspiracionists tell the same lie, does not make it true.
Second, whether they are right or left doesn’t matter. What matters is are they reporting facts that can be verified. (Which explains why Griffie has to keep repeating these tired lies, because he can’t deal with the facts so he’s desperately trying to kill the messenger.)

catweazle666
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 12:12 pm

“you do realise that mush of the ‘evidence’ against climate change is manufactured by these groups, with fossil fuel funding?”
HO HO HO HO!
Griff, it’s the way you tell ’em!
And, in point of fact, we know absolutely nothing of the sort, BECAUSE IT ISN’T TRUE!

LdB
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 6:08 pm

Another “Griff Fact” because he just googled it and someone said it on some obscure radical green website. Any relationship to a real fact is purely accidental.
Just because you believe some junk Griff doesn’t make it a fact 🙂

EW3
December 6, 2016 1:07 am

Trump needs to:
Get the word out that anyone guilty of destroying/misplacing any government records will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
While it’s hard to get rid of GS employees, they can be assigned to the “rubber room”, where they will sit at a desk without a computer or internet connections and a cell phone jamming device will block that avenue.
They will have nothing but coloring books and crayons to work with.
Further, employees will be required to follow the line as to work hours, days off etc….

Griff
Reply to  EW3
December 6, 2016 4:51 am

Without any evidence of wrongdoing?
If you are going to act like that, it must be after investigation and proof.
you can’t just condemn govt employees and scientists based on your politics

David Chappell
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 5:39 am

You mean like what has happened to Roger Pielke Jr and Willie Soon for example?

Griff
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 8:19 am

Willie? who got caught taking money for publishing research without declaring it?
Roger who got sacked because he was cherry picking and misrepresenting?
both were caught fair and square.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:03 am

David,
I know it’s difficult, but we need to stop feeding the troll.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Paul Penrose
December 6, 2016 9:07 am

No, I think Griff makes for good target practice, and lets everyone who cares keep their basic skills up. So when a truly challenging target comes along. . .

Janice Moore
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 9:49 am

Griff,
If anyone who has the inclination figures out what your real name is and where he or she can serve a Summons and Complaint on you, you are on legally thin ice.
Your slander, or, rather, libel (since it is in print) of Dr. Soon and Dr. Pielke are actionable.
Your defense, in the U.S. is the truth. You do not have that on your side. Thus, you would lose. And lose big. Check out the damages awarded to plaintiffs in successful libel cases (also, check out the cost of attorney fees to the defendant (that would be –> you, here)).
If I were Anthony, I would ban you permanently from this site for such disgusting false accusations.
Your enemy,
Janice

MarkW
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 11:16 am

The charges against Soon were quickly disproven.
But of course being the troll that you are, you will keep bringing them up because in reality, you have nothing better, and you know it.

MarkW
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 11:17 am

PS: Ditto for the charges against Pielke.

catweazle666
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 12:19 pm

“Willie? who got caught taking money for publishing research without declaring it?”
LIAR
How many times has it been proved to you that is not so?
Have you no conscience whatsoever?
With your sneering dismissal of the tens of thousands in the UK who die every year from fuel poverty, with your dismissal of the millions of deaths of bats and birds by the wind turbines – not to mention the dire effect the foul things have on the infrastructure, and your defence of the troughers such as “Sir” Reg Sheffield, “Lord” Gummer, Chris Huhne and Ed Davey, you expect to be regarded as one of the ‘Good Guys’?
You really are a piece of work, Sunshine.
You truly are a piece of work.

LdB
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 6:18 pm

I am with Janice enough of “Griff Facts” ™ , he feels it’s fine to defame people based on his own extreme bias with no evidence except his radical green extremist websites that he reads. Anthony has already called him out for the troll he is, but he is actually gone beyond that now into just outright defamation. Even those in the middle ground like Dr. Pielke haven’t drunk enough green cool-aide for our little green crazy Griff.

Jerry Henson
December 6, 2016 4:29 am

Recalcitrant EPA Employees should be transferred to Wake Isl to study agriculture.

David S
December 6, 2016 5:16 am

Hopefully , the first thing they do is decriminalise CO2. The terms clean energy and dirty energy need to disappear from the vernacular and the term carbon pollution should be banned when describing carbon dioxide emissions.

Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 7:17 am

Which one is picking up the phone to call in the FBI to investigate the staff?

Resourceguy
Reply to  Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 7:19 am

Part of the EPA headquarters will need to be reconfigured to house a large facility for lie detector testing of current staff.

Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 7:20 am

Start the investigations of NRDC and the Sierra Club also.

Dave
December 6, 2016 8:01 am

Hire a special prosecutor to review the conduct of NASA’s climate wing. We know the conduct is criminal as it is disinformation meant to keep the AGW gravy train running.

Griff
Reply to  Dave
December 6, 2016 8:26 am

yes – do it – and when it finds no fraud, real science and it actually is warming…?

MarkW
Reply to  Griff
December 6, 2016 11:17 am

Griffie actually is as delusional as he’s trying to make us believe.

Resourceguy
Reply to  Dave
December 6, 2016 10:26 am

They were too busy with science and policy fraud to verify any MPG ratings with track tests and many foreign car companies got away with false advertising for at least a decade to sell millions of vehicles, not just VW.

Griff
Reply to  Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 11:16 am

Exactly who found VW out in the end?
The Volkswagen emissions scandal (also known as “emissionsgate” or “dieselgate”) erupted on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group after it was found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing

Resourceguy
Reply to  Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 11:30 am

A tiny engineering shop in WV, that’s who.

Russell R.
Reply to  Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 1:00 pm

The destruction of diesel engines for passenger cars, was another EPA over-reach. They reduced the allowable levels of NOx from 1.25 gm/mile, to 0.07gm/mile. There is no solid scientific evidence that this is beneficial to the public. It was done to make diesel engines non-economical in comparison to other engines available in passenger cars. VW did violate the regulations, because they had invested billions of dollars optimizing the current engines, and didn’t want to flush their investment. There plan was to fool the test, until they could find a way to meet the requirement, without charging so much for the engine, that its benefits would not outweigh the added expense. This has proven very difficult, and currently cost approx. $3K, plus additional maintenance costs. I am not opposed to these types of regulations, when they are required. In this case, I have no idea whether they are required or not, because it was done by bureaucratic fiat.
I do know that the average lightning strike produces 7.5 kg of NOx, and there are several billion lightning strikes per year on Earth. So we are consistently exposed to these molecules now, and throughout our past existence on this planet. This was done to hang a scalp on the wall. No one will benefit in the destruction of half a million cars, and plenty of resources used to produce them, will have been wasted.

LdB
Reply to  Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 6:21 pm

Haha another “Griff Fact” ™ now EPA discovered the VW scandal.
Try reading a REAL NEWS REPORT Griff not the radical green website you do. Here lets give you a hand.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34519184
So who discovered the VW scandal Griff?

ferdberple
December 6, 2016 8:33 am

REGULATIONS AND BUREAUCRACY
More laws, less justice.
-Marcus Tullius Ciceroca (42 B.C.)
The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.
-Tacitus
Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.
-Honore De Balzac
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
-P.J. O’Rourke
If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.
-Winston Churchill
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
-Montesquieu
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
-Henry David Thoreau
One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.
-Thomas B. Reed (1886)
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
-William Pitt (1783)
I heartily accept the motto’ “That government is best which governs least”.
-Henry David Thoreau
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer (1891)
The best government is the one that charges you the least blackmail for leaving you alone.
-Thomas Rudman-Brown
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
-Louis Brandeis (1928)
Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
-Daniel Webster
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.
-Thomas Jefferson
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-C. S. Lewis

JPeden
Reply to  ferdberple
December 6, 2016 9:50 am

Nice work, many thanks!

Janice Moore
Reply to  ferdberple
December 6, 2016 1:57 pm

Thanks for that EXCELLENT list, Ferdberple.

Nigel in Santa Barbara
December 6, 2016 9:24 am

December 6, 2016 11:26 am

The new EPA: Let’s reneg.
The Trump team: A chill up my leg.
They are folks of reknown
and their cause is well known.
All honest, not one is a yegg. https://lenbilen.com/2016/12/06/5749/

Oatley
December 6, 2016 11:29 am

Suggestion to a new EPA Director. Hire an independent firm to do a forensic search of all agency computers for evidence of file deletions/directory wipes.

Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 11:40 am

Let’s reopen the case of John C. Beale and see just what he did for EPA before going off to jail.

Resourceguy
December 6, 2016 1:22 pm

News…
Navajo Nation Seeks More Than $160 Million From EPA in Colorado Mine Disaster
Nation seeking to recover costs from spill, ongoing environmental monitoring

Owen in GA
December 6, 2016 2:12 pm

The one I want to see is the EPA Inspector General appointment and whether the job is given to a proven investigator/prosecutor!

December 6, 2016 3:04 pm

An early task should be correction of misleading EPA claims of global warming potential (GWP) for various ghgs. CO2 which can absorb terrestrial radiation at only 15 microns (pressure etc. broadening spreads this to about 14-16 microns with peak at 15) is considered by the EPA to have greater GWP than water vapor which can absorb terrestrial radiation at hundreds of different wavelengths?
The EPA erroneously asserts GWP is a measure of “effects on the Earth’s warming” with “Two key ways in which these [ghg] gases differ from each other are their ability to absorb energy (their “radiative efficiency”), and how long they stay in the atmosphere (also known as their “lifetime”).” https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gwps.html
The EPA calculation of the global warming potential (GWP) of a ghg erroneously overlooks the fact that any effect the ghg might have on temperature is also integrated over the “lifetime” of the gas in the atmosphere so the duration in the atmosphere cancels out. Therefore GWP, as calculated by the EPA, is not a measure of the relative influence on average global temperature of a ghg. The influence (forcing) of a ghg cannot be more than determined by its concentration.
Thermalization and the complete dominance of water vapor in reverse-thermalization explain why CO2 has no significant effect on climate. Terrestrial EMR absorbed by CO2 is effectively rerouted to space via water vapor.

MRW
Reply to  Dan Pangburn
December 7, 2016 3:20 am

An early task should be correction of misleading EPA claims of global warming potential (GWP) for various ghgs. CO2 which can absorb terrestrial radiation at only 15 microns (pressure etc. broadening spreads this to about 14-16 microns with peak at 15)

Dan, can you explain something to me that I find confusing and can never get anyone to explain fully. It’s this: CO2 in the infrared is said to have total absorption at 15 microns. 15 microns is approximately 193K, or -80C, or -112F.
Does that mean CO2 absorbs terrestrial EMR best at those temperatures?
In other words, what is the significance of that temperature at 15 microns? Or isn’t there any?
I apologize if this is a dumb question.

Reply to  MRW
December 7, 2016 11:01 am

MRW – There are no dumb questions!
I don’t know about any connection between 15 microns and 193K. CO2 only absorbs terrestrial radiation at 15 microns (wave number 667 cm^-1) which is broadened by pressure etc. at sea level to about 14-16 microns. The absorbed radiation is immediately thermalized. The absorption is one photon per molecule so there needs to be enough molecules to catch all the 14-16 micron photons for ‘total’ absorption although water vapor is also a player at 14-16 microns.

MRW
Reply to  MRW
December 8, 2016 2:54 am

Dan, I just saw your reply. It’s late. I need sleep. Give me time to reply. So bookmark this. I will reply to you with the micron/temp connection. I want to understand this, Thanks!

brians356
December 7, 2016 11:45 am

News flash:
(Reuters)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to appoint Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a Trump transition team source said on Wednesday.
Pruitt was elected Oklahoma’s attorney general in November 2010 and has focused on restoring more regulatory oversight to states and limiting federal regulations.
As his state’s top legal official, he sued the agency is he poised to lead multiple times, including a pending lawsuit to topple the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of Democratic President Barack Obama’s climate change strategy.
Pruitt on Wednesday held his second meeting with Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Valerie Volcovici; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)