Donald Trump recruited a GOP energy lobbyist and a climate skeptic to round out his energy transition team. | Getty Trump transition fills out energy team

Donald Trump's presidential transition operation has recruited GOP energy lobbyist Mike McKenna and vocal climate skeptic Myron Ebell to run teams focused on the Energy Department and EPA respectively, according to people familiar with the hires.

David Bernhardt, the co-chair of the natural resources department at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and a George W. Bush Interior Department official, is leading the transition's Interior Department team, sources said.


McKenna, is a well-connected energy lobbyist with ties to the industry-backed American Energy Alliance and Institute for Energy Research. McKenna has lobbied for the Dow Chemical Company, Southern Company and Koch Companies Public Sector, which terminated his contract in May, according to public records. According to his website, McKenna previously served as an "external relations specialist" at the Energy Department.

Ebell is the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He is a prominent skeptic of climate science and a regular critic of the Obama administration's environmental policies. But he has never worked at the EPA.

Bernhardt, a veteran hand at Interior, served as deputy chief of staff and director of congressional and legislative affairs before becoming solicitor. His current lobbying clients, according to congressional disclosures, are the recreational company Active Network LLC and California's Westlands Water District.

As POLITICO previously reported, veteran Capitol Hill aide Mike Catanzaro is helping to lead the transition's energy team.

McKenna, Ebell and Bernhardt did not comment and the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. E&E News first reported the hires.

