Trump EPA eyes former Obama energy official to lead climate science face-off

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is considering a former official in President Barack Obama’s Energy Department to lead the agency's debate on mainstream climate science, according to a former leader of the Trump administration's EPA transition effort. Steve Koonin, a physicist and director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University, is being eyed to lead EPA's "red team, blue team" review of climate science, said Myron Ebell, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a Trump transition leader. "It makes sense because he has positioned himself as an honest broker," Ebell said. "He doesn't think that the consensus is what some of the alarmists claim it is, and there's a lot that needs to be discussed." When reached by phone, Koonin declined to comment on whether he was in talks with the administration about the climate job. But he added, "I think it would be a good idea if that kind of exercise took place."...more