EPA critic David Schnare returns to the agency he’s been trying to sabotage

After leaving the EPA in 2012, David Schnare, a lawyer, policy analyst, and climate denier, has returned as a full-time employee. Schnare was part of President Trump’s transition team, which put another climate denier, Scott Pruitt, in charge of the EPA. During his 33 previous years at the agency, Schnare ran a conservative think tank called the Center for Environmental Stewardship, which actively worked to undermine the EPA’s mission. He also cofounded a legal organization (funded partly by fossil fuel interests) that initiated a spate of lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests to target and intimidate climate scientists with whom Schnare disagreed. (Schnare, for instance, has stated that carbon regulations do greater harm to the environment than carbon dioxide emissions; scientists would not agree with that.) One of Schnare’s lawsuits sought to block all EPA rules that would reduce deadly particulate matter pollution, commonly referred to as soot. Thankfully, a federal judge tossed out the case. The return of this climate-denying antagonist who has worked to block the health protections that save tens of thousands of American lives a year does not bode well for the nation’s premier environmental agency.