Greenhouse gases are, by definition, air pollutants.
This classification has long been a fundamental tenet of U.S. climate policy, giving the federal government the power to set limits on all types of global warming pollution, from tailpipe emissions to power plant emissions. I have it.
Republican megadonor Tim Dunn wants to put everything back together.
And the Texas oil billionaire spent millions of dollars helping elect former President Donald Trump to try to reverse that policy, as well as other U.S. efforts to combat global warming. is spent.
“It would be ideal if we could get rid of this ‘carbon dioxide as a pollutant’ business,” Dunn said last year at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank he funds. Ta.
To that end, Dunn suggested that President Trump issue an executive order on his first day in office that would overturn 15 years of precedent. “I wish every EO we could have had an EO to curb all this nonsense about CO2 emissions,” Dunn said.
Environmental policy experts say an executive order alone will not be enough to prevent the federal government from defining carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as air pollutants.
But they say Dunn’s interest in the issue is noteworthy, especially as the longtime power broker in Texas expands his ambitions beyond the Lone Star State. And while unlabeling greenhouse gases as air pollutants may be a long way off, this is one of the many anti-climate policies Dunn wants to see enacted in a second Trump administration.
Mr. Dunn has for years funded efforts to move Texas further to the right, many aimed at increasing the influence of Christianity in public life. Now, he’s freeing up money for bigger ventures and tougher goals, such as U.S. climate policy.
“He’s going to oppose anything that falls under what he thinks is environmentally woke, and he’s going to put his money where his mouth is,” said the political action committee that works to elect Democrats. said Matt Angle, founder of the Lone Star Project. situation.
One of Dunn’s most significant investments on the national stage is in the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank founded in 2021.
Mr. Dunn serves on its board of directors and has helped fund it with more than $400,000 in gifts from another foundation that bears his name.
The America First Policy Institute is well-positioned to influence the second Trump administration if a Republican presidential candidate retakes the White House.
In August, President Trump named Linda McMahon, the group’s board chair, to co-lead his transition team. The America First Institute also employs a number of former Trump administration officials, including former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
The Trump campaign and America First Policy Institute did not respond to requests for comment from POLITICO’s E&E News. Attempts to contact Dunn through the America First Policy Institute were unsuccessful.
Mr. Dunn’s gift is not limited to the America First Institute.
Federal election records show he donated at least $5 million this term to the pro-Trump political action committee Make America Great Again PAC. And according to OpenSecrets, he has donated more than $6 million to Republican candidates and the Republican Party this season.
In addition to these contributions, Dan also helps fund the larger network of influence.
Texas billionaire funds the Dunn Foundation, which has a $100 million war chest, some of which goes to funding organizations that deny or downplay climate change and its effects used in These include Heartland Institute, Turning Point USA, Cato Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute, according to the foundation’s most recent tax filing.
A Texas Democrat said the investment represents a multi-pronged attack on climate policy that could undermine U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“I can’t think of anything more dangerous to the planet than Tim Dunn shaping our nation’s climate policy,” said Democratic Texas Congressman James Talarico.
Dan says CO2 is good for plants.
Dunn largely avoids speaking to the press or publicly displaying his political intentions.
His comments at a Texas event with the America First Policy Institute last year provide a rare public platform for ideas he and the group may support in a second Trump administration. That comment is even more noteworthy.
Dunn said that if Republicans gain control of Congress and the White House, they could use the same budget reconciliation strategy that Democrats used to pass anti-inflation laws to pass legislation supporting the fossil fuel industry. He said he wanted to.
“They have now figured out how to reconcile all these things so that if they can get the trifecta and AFPI does its job, they can get most of this done with a majority. ” said Dunn. “With your help, we can actually develop a plan, execute it, and actually point this ship toward America. I think that’s very doable at this point.”
Dan lives on his family’s property in Midland, Texas, in the heart of oil and gas country, near the megachurch and Christian school he funded.
He was CEO when CrownQuest Operating Co. agreed to sell CrownRock LP to Occidental Petroleum last year. That sale has ended this year. In 2023, he and his affiliates accounted for two-thirds of donations to the state Republican Party, ProPublica reported.
Fundamental to his policy approach is the view that unchecked carbon dioxide emissions are not a threat to humanity, a position at odds with decades of climate research and scientific community consensus.
“Carbon dioxide greens plants and the earth. It is not a pollutant,” he said. “If you want your plants to grow twice as fast, you’re pumping CO2 into the greenhouse.”
In addition to promoting the fossil fuel industry, Dunn and the America First Institute for Policy Research are looking at the Biden administration’s efforts on climate and energy, including the Inflation Control Act, which clearly states that greenhouse gases are pollutants, as well as promoting the fossil fuel industry. seems to want to withdraw it. .
Steve Moore, an economic adviser to President Trump and a senior fellow at the America First Institute for Policy Research, said the group would seek to reverse policies that prioritize fossil fuels or reverse the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said that he would push ahead with policies that would
He also said the America First Institute aims to cut hundreds of government programs, including those related to clean energy.
“I think there will be a focus on really looking at ways to identify programs that are wasteful and inefficient and actually finding ways to eliminate hundreds of obsolete government programs and hopefully save hundreds of billions of dollars. ” he said.
A long-time target of conservatives
Steve Milloy, who was part of President Trump’s EPA transition team in 2016, said fewer people will stand in Trump’s way to attack regulations and climate policies in his second term.
At the top of the list, he said, are attacks on the EPA’s fundamental determination that greenhouse gases are considered air pollutants (known as endangered status).
“Trump 2.0 would see the at-risk certification revoked,” he said. “Climate change is a hoax and we have to go to the root of the evil, which is the extinction crisis.”
Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, are threatened with extinction by EPA, which determines that public health and the environment are threatened by greenhouse gases and should be addressed under the Clean Air Act. Since 2009, it has been classified as a pollutant.
It has since been used as a key component in creating EPA regulations for vehicle and power plant emissions.
Despite the lack of legitimate scientific research that questions global warming as a result of humans burning fossil fuels, this endangered finding is supported by a mountain of climate science and has long been maintained. It has become a target of factions.
Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the efforts to discover endangered species reflect a “long pattern of fossil fuel interests denying basic science about human health and the environment to protect their profits.” It’s part of the.” .
“They’re just lying to what the science is saying,” she added. “And they seek to make the federal government and judicial system comply with their propaganda at the expense of the health of the American people.”
During President Trump’s first term, some administration officials tried to undermine or overturn the findings, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
Last year, conservative groups petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider regulations based on hazard findings, arguing that they are causing financial harm to individuals.
The High Court dismissed the suit.
To invalidate this finding, opponents must first disprove or discredit years of scientific research, which they have not been able to do. But during Trump’s presidency, several attempts to attack climate science failed. These efforts will likely be further strengthened in the second term.
The America First Policy Institute is led by Brooke Rollins, a close aide to President Trump. Before joining the Trump administration, Rollins served as president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and has spent years fighting to clarify the findings of the endangerment study.
Rollins is reportedly the front-runner for Trump’s chief of staff should he win the White House.
