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Myron Ebell serves as the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). He is also the chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a coalition built to "question global warming alarmism." In September 2016, Ebell was appointed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is a longtime climate change denier.

Education

Ebell grew up on a 2,000 acres (810 ha) cattle ranch in Oregon. He graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in philosophy and obtained an M.Sc. in political theory from the London School of Economics. He did graduate work in history at the University of California at San Diego and at Peterhouse College, Cambridge University.

Career

Ebell was an early staff member of Senator Malcolm Wallop's Frontiers of Freedom Institute at least between 1996 and 1999 when he took up his post at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Ebell plays a prominent part in producing news releases at the CEI.

Tobbacco industry

The tobacco company Phillip Morris hired Ebell in the 1990s as Policy Director to mount a campaign to make regulating the tobacco industry "politically unpalatable", and to advocate for acceptance of "safer cigarettes." As part of its "Control Abuse of Power" (CAP) project, Ebell launched lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), respectively.

Media appearances

In 2001, Ebell stated his belief that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by the EU and the rest of the world to harm America's economy. He justified the allegation with a quote from European Commissioner Margot Wallström in her response to Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. Ebell also called the UK's Chief Scientist David King "an alarmist with ridiculous views who knows nothing about climate change"; he added that since all scientists in Europe and in other countries outside the USA were funded by governments, none of them could be seen as independent. 66 MPs signed an Early Day Motion deploring "in the strongest possible terms unfounded and insulting criticism of Sir David King..."

Litigation

In 2000, Ebell was a plaintiff, along with several members of Congress, including Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK), who sued the National Science and Technology Council, President Bill Clinton, and the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs asserted that the National Assessment on Climate Change report—which details likely state-by-state consequences of anthropogenic climate change—violated several federal open-meeting, appropriations and research statutes.

In June 2002 he wrote a memo to Philip Cooney, which Greenpeace later obtained, outlining their strategy for dealing with what Ebell saw as problems caused by the Climate Action Report 2002, which the US government had submitted to the UN. One paragraph reads:

As I said, we made the decision this morning to do as much as we could to deflect criticism by blaming the EPA for freelancing. It seems to me that the folks at the EPA are the obvious fall guys, and we would only hope that the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible. I have done several interviews and have stressed that the president needs to get everyone rowing in the same direction. Perhaps tomorrow we will call for to be fired. I know that that doesn't sound like much help, but it seems to me that our only leverage to push you in the right direction is to drive a wedge between the President and those in the Administration who think they are serving the president's best interests by publishing this rubbish.

When two state attorneys general obtained this email they wrote to John Ashcroft, the US attorney general:

It appears that certain White House officials conspired with an anti-environmental special interest group to cause the lawsuit to be filed against the federal government.

The idea that the Bush Administration may have invited a lawsuit from a special interest group in order to undermine the federal government's own work under an international treaty is very troubling.

We believe an investigation is necessary to determine whether the idea of this lawsuit came from the White House itself, and if so, whether it represents improper conduct by public officials.

Other writings

In 2006, Ebell wrote an article in Forbes titled "Love Global Warming". In the article, Ebell argues that increased temperatures caused by climate change would make colder regions more comfortable to live in, and in regions already known for warm weather, "the higher temperatures are killing people who are likely to die soon anyway."

Myron Ebell wrote articles for Human Events on issues of oil drilling and of the fight for the re-election of the Republican Representative Richard Pombo.

Ebell has been a critic of the Endangered Species Act, saying that it unfairly infringes on land owner's property rights, as well as going against the protection of rare species by encouraging land-owners to make their property uninhabitable for such species to escape regulation.

In addition, Ebell stated in September 2016 that "the Congress should prohibit any funding for the Paris Climate Agreement, the Green Climate Fund, and the underlying UN Framework Convention on Climate Change."

Personal life

Ebell resides in a suburb of Washington, D.C. with his wife and four children.

References

1. ^ Shnayerson, Michael (May 2007). "A Convenient Untruth". Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
2. ^ What a Donald Trump EPA Will Look Like With Climate Change Skeptic Myron Ebell at the Helm. NewsWeek, 9 November 2016|quote=Ebell is sometimes described as climate denier-in-chief, and he revels in it.
3. Greshko, Michael (9 November 2016). "The Global Dangers of Trump's Climate Denial". National Geographic. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
4. Mufson, Steven; Brady, Dennis (9 November 2016). "Trump victory reverses U.S. energy and environmental priorities". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
5. Bravender, Robin. "Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition". Retrieved 2016-09-27.
6. Ronson, Jacqueline (November 9, 2016). "This Climate Change Denier Might Soon Lead the EPA". Inverse. Retrieved November 10, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. Morrow, Brendan (November 10, 2016). "Myron Snell: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
8. Mufson, Steven (September 26, 2016). "Trump's transition team has tapped a longtime climate skeptic to set environmental policy". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 10, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. ^ "Myron Ebell: Director, Center for Energy and Environment". Competitive Enterprise Institute. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
10. "Scoop issue 139". The National Center for Public Policy Research. 10 August 1996. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
11. "Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil's Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science". Union of Concerned Scientists. 3 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
12. Symons, Jeremy (11 November 2016). "Meet Trump's Pick To Dismantle EPA". The Hoffington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
13. "Controlled Power | Not another 1984 please". Controlabuseofpower.org. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
14. Stephen Castle (19 March 2001). "EU sends strong warning to Bushover greenhouse gas emisssions". The Independent. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
15. "With the Queen in Germany worrying about climate change...? (includes listener feedback)" (RealAudio). BBC. 4 November 2004. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
16. "1881 US Government and climate change". Hansard. 17 November 2004.
17. "Greenpeace obtains smoking-gun memo: White House/Exxon link". Greenpeace. 9 September 2003. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
18. "Climate Action Report 2002". May 2002. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
19. "Maine, Connecticut AGs call on Ashcroft to investigate White House role in lawsuit" (Press release). Maine.gov. 11 August 2003. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
20. Myron Ebell (8 December 2006). "Love Global Warming". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
21. Myron Ebell (2 November 2006). "Environmentalists Attack Richard Pombo". Human Events. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
22. Myron Ebell (April 2005). "An Update on Endangered Species Act Reform" (PDF). American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)l. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
23. Ebell, Myron (3 September 2016). "Obama, Chinese president ratify climate-change agreement". Washington Times. CEI. Retrieved 2016-11-10.

External links

• "Myron Ebell". DeSmog.
• "Myron Ebell". sourcewatch.org.

• Living people
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• Climate change skepticism and denial
• Colorado College alumni
• Human Events people
• People from Baker County, Oregon