Wells Griffith
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">SCL had worked on some elections, in a few war zones, and for the Pentagon over the years, with perhaps their most notable appearance being in <b>2004 Ukraine at the time of the Orange Revolution (allegedly on behalf of the vested interests of British intelligence, according to one untrustworthy source, </b>as previously noted by TEXTIFIRE).</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> SCL carries a Secret clearance as a ‘List X’ contractor for the British Ministry of Defence and had always portrayed themselves as experts in the field of behavioral dynamics and psychological warfare, but had no known background in the algorithmic data processing with which they are now associated.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So why would an ill-equipped foreign defense contractor like SCL be called upon by the Mercers to do big data research? The answer again appears to lie somewhere in the weeds near Steve Bannon.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Header for Nigel Farage’s dozens of Breitbart essays (Source)]</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WEREN’T THE FIRST TEA PARTIERS ANGRY AT THE BRITS..?</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bannon became interested in United Kingdom politics in the early 2010s, seeing it as fertile ground for ideological manipulation. He began making friends with far right bloggers and politicians, particularly those tied in with <b>Nigel Farage’s United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). </b>A hard right party commonly disparaged as fascist, UKIP sought to restore what it saw as true conservatism. Bannon was greatly invested in the USA Tea Party ‘movement’ at the time, as evidenced by his movie productions and speaking engagements, so he viewed UKIP as a natural comrade in arms.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UKIP had been stagnating as a political force while known as a single platform party, focused almost entirely on immigration crackdown and demand for UK’s exit from the European Union. Co-founder Farage had returned to lead the party for a 2nd time in November 2010 — later in the same week as the first Tea Party Republicans were elected in the US midterms — after failing in his bid to become House of Commons Speaker earlier that year, and began to incorporate a wider variety of populist messaging with a focus on local elections to increase growth.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soon after Bannon took over Breitbart in the summer of 2012, he brought Farage to the USA for a grand tour of New York and Washington, D.C. During this trip, Bannon introduced Farage to a number of movers & shakers, including the staff of <b>Jeff Sessions</b></span><b>, </b>the then-senator from Alabama who is now US Attorney General. This was certainly not the first connection between UK eurosceptics and US nativists, however.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Throughout the previous year, a <b>UK political activist ‘pressure group’ called Atlantic Bridge</b> was garnering a lot of press for all the wrong reasons. Fronted by then-<b>Defence Secretary Liam Fox,</b> after being founded in 1997 by Fox and Reagan BFF/ex-UK-PM Margaret Thatcher, its stated goal was to protect the 80's holdover concept of the US & UK’s military and cultural ‘special relationship’ from “the European integrationists who would like to pull Britain away from its relationship with the United States.”</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Louise Mensch (#TrumpRussia false idol, Tory ex-MP, and current News Corp employee) defending Liam Fox and a Brexit]</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Atlantic Bridge fell into the sea in late 2011, after extensive investigations found Fox had been implementing a “shadow foreign policy” by internationally courting a variety of corporate lobbyists and military contractors via the dark money donated to Bridge as a falsely-labeled charity. Fox then resigned his Cabinet position, taking a few others down with him.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of those affected was yet another powerful hedge fund manager, ex-Goldman Sachs trader, climate-change denier & funder, and longtime Tory/Conservative donor named Michael Hintze who provided the majority of those donations and lent his private jet to <b>Fox for schmoozy jaunts to meet with D.C. defence contractors</b>.</span> With a strong interest in geopolitical wargames, a habit of supporting Defence Secretaries, and a predilection for hiring senior military officials at his powerful firm Convertible & Quantitative Strategies, it’s small wonder Hintze sought to establish a Western security superhighway before the Bridge collapsed.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Back in 2007, however, Atlantic Bridge was still in its prime, and it gained even more power when a giant among US political activist groups began an official partnership with it. The American Legislative Exchange Council — better known as <b>ALEC</b> — set up a stateside nonprofit called the Atlantic Bridge Project, in order to “foster positive relationships between conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic, so they may further the ideals exemplified by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.”</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Atlantic Bridge’s Liam Fox thanking ALEC 2008]</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ALEC’s decades-old modus operandi is to write complete versions of new legislation, which invariably benefits only its powerful corporate members, to be passed off to complicit politicians and introduced in Congress as original products. A<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">n official<b> ALEC</b> newsletter from Dec 2007 bragged of the Bridge Project’s new plans to enact “a series of events aimed at conservative leaders from the field of politics, media, business, and academia — exposing them to innovative conservative thinking from the U.S. and Great Britain and helping them forge new transatlantic relationships.”</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Catherine Bray</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> is pictured in the newsletter as the Director of International Relations for Atlantic Bridge; she had previously worked for prominent<b> UKIP member & climate change denier Roger Helmer and subsequently worked for Tory Daniel Hannan, “the man who brought you Brexit</b></span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” In 2015, Bray married </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Wells Griffith, who became the battleground states director for Trump’s presidential campaign.</span></b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Managing the D.C. operations for the Project was </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gordon Cohen Strategies</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> LLC, co-founded by Lee Cohen,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Atlantic Bridge’s Washington DC Director, and J.D. Gordon, a retired Pentagon spokesman and well-traveled defense lobbyist. Lee Cohen is now an ardent Trump supporter, publishing an IJR essay in November 2016 predicting Trump and new UK PM Theresa May will be the new Reagan & Thatcher.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Within a few days of Liam Fox’s 2011 resignation, J.D. Gordon took a job as communications director for<b> Herman Cain’s 2012 presidential campaign, in which Tea Partier Cain promised to reduce corporate taxes and install the Shell Oil CEO as head of the EPA. Cain began briefly leading Obama in the polls at that time and was the most reported-on GOP candidate in 2011, but quit the race less than 2 months later after sexual misconduct charges arose.</b></span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gordon was slightly controversial when he originally joined up as one of Cain’s foreign policy advisers, as he had recently left a fellowship position at the Washington-based <b>Center for Security Policy, a far-right think tank (or perhaps hate group) devoted to advancing founder and former Reagan official Frank Gaffney’s pet cause of extreme Islamophobia.</b> Cain’s campaign also absorbed the staff of Gordon’s own embryonic thinktank, the Center for Security and Democracy, which included a former Heritage Foundation manager.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">J.D. Gordon is most recently known for his work as a key foreign policy adviser to Cain clone Donald Trump, who counted Herman among his early campaign rally speakers/surrogates, and about whom Gordon wrote a pro-Trump Breitbart article in April 2016. Gordon was also Jeff Sessions’ deputy,</span> allegedly traveled to Budapest six times during the campaign, participated in the infamous July 2016 Republican National Convention meeting — hosted by the Heritage Foundation — involving co-adviser <b>Carter Page and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak</b>, and is said to have previously recommended that Page embark on his Congressionally-investigated trip to Moscow<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">. Gordon also claims he personally asked to water down the RNC platform with noncommittal language omitting lethal weapons support for Ukraine, and that Trump directly ordered him to do so.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(L to R) Lee, Johnson, Toomey, DeMint, Rubio]</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Atlantic Bridge’s leading light in the US Congress was South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, then frequently cited as one of the farthest-right sitting Senators</b>. An ardent tax reformer, Family member, and anti-immigration crusader, he was on board with the Tea Party from its inception in early 2009, setting the stage with the establishment of his <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senate Conservatives Fund PAC in 2008. The Fund attacked Republicans for being too ‘moderate’ and then gave millions to the successful 2010 Senate campaigns of such first-time Tea Party candidates as Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Pat Toomey. Also in 2010, DeMint introduced the first bill intended to repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Senator DeMint followed up that legislation a few months later with his first published article/op-ed on Breitbart News, dated 6 May 2010. Breitbart repeatedly showered him with glowing coverage,</b> so he went on to publish another article there on 27 Jul 2012, in which he<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"> endorsed Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz for Senate and lauded the aforementioned Club for Growth’s monetary “air and ground support” for Cruz’s campaign.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>A large chunk of the money for that tactical assault was provided by Robert Mercer,</b> with other miniature morsels of Mercer Money going to DeMint, Toomey, and Rubio at various times. Unsurprisingly, Club for Growth rated Paul, Johnson, Lee and DeMint as 4 of the only 5 Senators to vote ‘correctly’ 100% of the time, with Lee and Demint tying for the Heritage Foundation’s top honor at 99% approval.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Breitbart Embassy” in DC, 2012 (Source)]</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>DeMint resigned from the Senate less than two months after the 2012 election in order to become president of Heritage — a thinktank which shares an enormous number of historical, practical, and membership commonalities with ALEC — by which time Atlantic Bridge had been dead [in the UK] for over a year</b>. Even so, it’s easy to imagine DeMint, Liam Fox, J.D. Gordon, and/or any of the other Atlantic Bridge ambassadors still managed to make their way to any one of the legendary parties thrown at the “Breitbart Embassy”, a four-story townhouse rented (?) by Breitbart near the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As for the gregarious and cigar-chomping heavy drinker Nigel Farage, we don’t have to imagine anything. He was treated as the guest of honor at a Breitbart Embassy dinner & cocktail party in September 2014, where the stars of the new right rubbed shoulders with journalists from across the media spectrum. Other guests that night included LifeZette’s<b> Laura Ingraham,</b> a reporter from Rolling Stone, Jeff Sessions, and Sessions’ then-top aide Stephen Miller.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steve Bannon had been partially living at the Embassy since at least 2011, when Breitbart staff and writers were first encouraged to work & sleep there, though it was initially expected to serve as a means to rub shoulders with the movers & shakers of the DC political elite. “Andrew [Breitbart] said that if you didn’t have a place within spitting distance of the Capitol, no one would come,” Bannon told The Washington Post at an Embassy blowout schmooze-and-boozefest CPAC rager in 2014. “He loved to throw big parties.”</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But regardless of the precise circumstances by which Bannon became enmeshed with the UK’s conservative elite prior to mid-2012, engrossing as the detailed story may be, his friendship with UKIP & Brexit’s Farage tells us all we need to know. As such, we should be unsurprised to learn it was <b>allegedly Steve Bannon who urged the Mercers to invest US$15m in big data research funds with the British defence contractor SCL Group.</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PSYOPS GOES MAINSTREAM</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060077493</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><section class="content" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; counter-reset: list-header-num 0; max-width: 600px;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wells Griffith's path to overseeing the Trump administration's international energy and climate strategy began on a much smaller stage — "the social Shell."</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Griffith's grandfather started the gas station that's well-known in Mobile, Ala. Griffith's father, Preston, still runs the place and answers the phone. ("I'm very honored for the work he's doing for President Trump," the elder Griffith said, declining further comment.) It's the type of place where employees run out to clean windshields, asked or not, when motorists refuel.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That congeniality rubbed off on Griffith, said Quin Hillyer, a Mobile-based conservative commentator. Hillyer and Griffith were two of nine candidates in a GOP primary to replace retired Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) in 2013 in what he called "a friendly race." Before they squared off as opponents, Hillyer actually passed on hiring Griffith to run his own campaign — he couldn't fathom hiring then-Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus' deputy chief of staff, which was Griffith's job at the time.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm no fan of his current boss, the president. I'm no fan of his former boss at the RNC," Hillyer said. "But Wells is just a nice, hardworking guy."</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He'll need to put in some extra hours at his new job leading the Trump administration's international energy and climate strategy, a post he'll hold for at least three months as a trial run for a permanent gig (<a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060077369" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; font-weight: bold;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Climatewire</em></a>, March 24).</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Griffith's time at his dad's gas station is about all the energy experience he had until this past year, when he landed a top political job at the Energy Department after working on the Trump campaign. An industry source called his literacy on energy issues "a work in progress." Those who work in the international climate space said his views are a mystery.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Looking across the administration, though, there aren't many officials who have breadth of expertise with demonstrated commitment to Trump world, sources said. In a period of significant personnel fluctuation, Trump has shown a propensity to go with familiar faces.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That has accelerated the fast rise for the young, mid-30s Republican operative and former congressional candidate. While he's learned on the job at the Energy Department, where he's been for more than a year, those who have collaborated with Griffith say he is analytical, a good listener and a quick study.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Wells has quickly established himself as an integral component of the administration's expansive international energy agenda and demonstrated a good head for quickly understanding issues and most importantly, knowing how to get things done, which is always the greatest asset anyone can have," Christopher Guith, senior vice president of the <b>U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said in an email.</b></font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many described Griffith as loyal, a quality admired by Trump. That he was on hand for the campaign rather than being one of the many hires Trump didn't previously know worked to Griffith's benefit. On top of that, Griffith is well-entrenched within the Republican establishment, having worked his way through the party ranks.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That loyalty to Trump and the GOP extends to supporting the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, said Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, who worked with Griffith on the DOE transition team. That marks a departure from George David Banks, who previously held the role and advocated for remaining in the global agreement.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I certainly don't think he shares the same opinion as his predecessor about the Paris Agreement," Pyle said. "I think he recognizes the importance of the United States globally on these issues, and I think he's much more aligned with President Trump."</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In some respects, Trump might owe his presidential victory to Griffith's groundwork. As battleground states director for the Trump campaign, Griffith led political operations in key states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio that helped send Trump to the White House.</font></p><h3 style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Conservative Republican'</font></h3><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For that, Griffith was rewarded with an administration post. While he had no professional energy experience, he landed at DOE as a liaison to the White House. He was part of the network of political aides guiding personnel decisions at individual agencies early in the administration that frustrated top officials within those departments.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eventually, Griffith found his way to an open desk at DOE's Office of International Affairs — and ended up running it in the absence of a nominee. While there, he helped negotiate with countries around the world, including an agreement to send 700,000 metric tons of coal from Pennsylvania to Ukrain</span>e (<a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060058202" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Climatewire</em></a>, Aug. 1, 2017). It's from that post that he will make the jump to the White House.</font></p><aside id="image_asset_layout_31105" class="right span10 image_asset_layout" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; max-width: 380px; width: 380px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 3px 2px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Griffith (second from right) at an Energy Department event last August celebrating the first shipment of Pennsylvania thermal coal to Ukraine. <span class="credit" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Energy Department</span></font></p></aside><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Wells Griffith will bring a lot of insight on energy policy in the international scene," an administration official said. "He has a constructive approach in working with other countries in promoting America's energy interests and sound foreign policy."</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of Griffith's work prior to his position at DOE was strictly political. He was a campaign strategist, Priebus' former staffer and an aide on Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wis.) failed presidential bid in 2015.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Griffith called himself a "conservative Republican" when running for Congress and gained an endorsement from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who is now speaker of the House. On his campaign <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150311223137/http://www.wellsgriffithforcongress.com:80/issues/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold;">website</a>, Griffith promoted socially conservative views such as opposing abortion rights and gay marriage while calling for enhanced border security and tougher enforcement of immigration laws. He also called for reining in government spending and repealing President Obama's health care law, and he drew on his youth at his family's gas station to tout a jobs agenda.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Growing up in Mobile, I spent my summers working at my family's gas station — wiping windows, checking tires. I learned the value of hard work," Griffith said in a 2013 congressional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_SXMqtt8Io" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; font-weight: bold;">advertisement</a>.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've never run for office. And I don't want to make a career out of being a politician," he said. "But I truly believe that if we don't drastically cut spending and the spread of government, our country will be lost forever."</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Five years later, Griffith is firmly entrenched in the political world — even if not in the way he might have envisioned.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And while he's a relative newcomer to the energy scene, that doesn't mean people should count him out, his supporters said. When running for Congress, Griffith joined the condensed special primary about five weeks after the front-runners, Hillyer noted. Griffith finished a distant fifth with 11 percent of the vote but narrowed the gap in the final days to fare better than polls predicted.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He knows how to build a working organization. He knows how to do the nuts and bolts," said Hillyer, his onetime congressional opponent. Hillyer finished fourth in that primary. "I just know that whatever he does, he'll work hard and he'll do it with integrity."</font></p></section><section class="promotion generated" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-width: 2px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-color: rgb(152, 177, 203); border-image: initial; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/zcolman" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">@zcolman</a></span> <span style="background: transparent; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-image: initial; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.65em; vertical-align: baseline;">Email: <a href="mailto:zcolman@eenews.net" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">zcolman@eenews.net</a></span></font></section></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/preston-wells-griffith"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/preston-wells-griffith</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">E<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/agencies/energy" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">nergy</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(joined: Jan. 20, 2017)</span></font></div><p class="agency-staffer-position" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1rem 50px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior White House Advisor | Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary For International Affairs | $179,700 | <span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-top-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-width: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; transition: 0.2s;">Financial Disclosure
...Wells Griffith is an attorney and consultant specializing in the creation and management of political and public affairs campaign strategies, as well as business development. Wells recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee and as a senior advisor to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. In his first two years at the RNC, Wells traveled to most of the 50 states working with congressional leadership and the presidential campaign to get Republican candidates elected from coast to coast. Following the 2012 presidential campaign Wells worked with the Chairman and a specially selected committee on the RNC’s strategy for winning support from non-traditional support bases known as the Growth and Opportunity Project. While at the RNC, Wells also served as the primary contact for international political parties, offering exchange on issue management and campaign guidance. Before working at the Republican National Committee, Wells spent several years managing and consulting on a number of successful US House and Senate races in the south east, and also a various key state office campaigns that helped to flip the Alabama state legislature to Republican control. Wells also served as Executive Director of the Mississippi Republican Party under Republican Governor Haley Barbour. Wells most recently managed Chairman Reince Priebus’ successful reelection as RNC Chairman.</span></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none outside none;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/donald-j-trump-for-president-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s;"> Trump for President</a></strong> Battleground States Director</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/our-american-revival" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Our American Revival</a></strong> Deputy Political Director</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/reince-for-rnc-chair" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Reince for RNC Chair</a></strong> Consultant</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/scott-walker-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Walker for President</a></strong> Deputy Political Director</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/trump-for-america-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump for America Inc. (Presidential Transition Team)</a></strong> Member</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/wells-griffith-llc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Wells Griffith, LLC</a></strong> Owner</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Compensation Sources</font></h4><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none outside none;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/alabama-free-market-alliance" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Alabama Free Market Alliance</a></strong> Served as a consultant for the organization</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/arena-communications" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Arena Communications</a></strong> Served as sales consultant</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/arena-communications" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Arena Online</a></strong> Served as sales consultant</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/citizens-for-american-security" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Citizens for American Security</a></strong> Served as a consultant for the organization</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/confidential-client_hide-f6576b15-bbf9-4ba0-83d1-2ff3f008be3b" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Confidential Client</a></strong> Served as a consultant</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/donald-j-trump-for-president-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Donald J. Trump for President</a></strong> Served as battleground states director overseeing a number of battleground states</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/kcb-solutions" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">KCB Solutions</a></strong> Served as a consultant on a political project.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/marsy-s-law-for-all-llc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Marsy's Law for All LLC</a></strong> Performed an assessment for the organization</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/our-american-revival" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Our American Revival</a></strong> Served as a political consultant for the organization</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/trump-for-america-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Presidential Transition Team</a></strong> Worked on the transition team</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/reince-for-rnc-chair" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Reince for RNC Chair</a></strong> Served as a consultant on RNC Chairman election</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/scott-walker-inc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Walker for President</a></strong> Served as Deputy Political Director for Gov. Scott Walker's Presidential Campaign</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/wells-griffith-llc" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: none; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: 0.2s; text-decoration-line: none;">Wells Griffith LLC</a></strong> Owner/Consultant for various political and public affairs projects</font></li></ul></li></ul><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">icn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">absence of U.S. leadership at Bonn may be keenly felt in the one-day session scheduled for May 8 dedicated to the so-called Talanoa Dialogue, the process to reexamine the commitments that individual nations have made so far. (Fiji, the current chair of the talks, chose the traditional word "Talanoa" to reflect a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So far, there are 48 <a href="https://talanoadialogue.com/submit-inputs" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">submissions</a> to the dialogue representing the views of 178 countries that are parties to the Paris Agreement, as well as hundreds of submissions by non-governmental organizations, addressing how nations might raise their ambitions. The United States is among about 20 nations that had offered no submission as of Wednesday. (Other large carbon emitters that have not made Talanoa Dialogue submissions include Canada and Brazil.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is scheduled to contribute to the discussion this fall in the form of a special report on the science behind a tougher goal, keeping <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12012018/ipcc-climate-change-1.5-degrees-poverty-environmental-justice-draft-report" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">global warming to 1.5°C</a> above pre-industrial levels. But the national commitments that have been made under the Paris Agreement so far only get the world a third of the way to the goal of keeping the temperature increase below 2°C, as the United Nations Environment Program's "Emissions Gap" <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">report </a>showed last year.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We don't have to wait for the IPCC report to know that we are way behind the curve," said Meyer.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Room for Hope?</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although few observers of the climate talks have illusions that the Trump administration—especially with its new foreign policy team—will offer to set stronger goals to cut carbon emissions, French President <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?444422-1/french-president-macron-pushes-comprehensive-iran-nuclear-deal-address-congress" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Emmanuel Macron's remarks before Congress</a> last week demonstrated that some world leaders still hold out hope that the United States will return to the climate fight in the long run.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I am sure, one day, the United States will come back and join the Paris Agreement," Macron told Congress. "Let us face it: There is no Planet B."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And when Pompeo, during his <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4724519/sen-merkley-asks-pompeo-views-climate-change" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">confirmation hearing</a>, faced a question on climate change from Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), he replied: "I ... believe the climate is changing, that there's a warming taking place. I'm happy to concede that there's a human component to that. I'm equally prepared to tell you that as we find tools that are effective to prevent the risk to the United States ... the State Department ought to appropriately be involved in them." (In fact, human causes are behind most or all of the observed warming in recent decades, and the risks go beyond what affects the United States. International diplomacy also is needed to address the fact that the U.S. and other developed countries are largely to blame for the warming seen so far, which presents worse risks to nations like small island states that have contributed little to atmospheric carbon emissions.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One avowed optimist is the Trump White House's former international climate adviser, George David Banks, who had supported staying in the Paris Agreement. He maintains that the hard-line U.S. stand puts the nation in a stronger negotiating position when it comes to the talks now underway. That's because the rest of the world knows the Trump administration is willing to walk away, he argues.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The Trump administration could not have negotiated the Paris Agreement—it took the Obama administration to do that," argues Banks. "But now that the international community has invested so much political capital in the agreement, the Trump administration has much more leverage than a Hillary Clinton administration would have had in finalizing these points. It's an interesting situation."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But on top of the changes in Trump's top echelon of foreign policy advisers, recent staff turnover at the White House adds to uncertainty around the future U.S. role in the climate talks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Banks, who served as a climate negotiator in President George W. Bush's administration, resigned from his Trump administration post earlier this year when he could not obtain a security clearance. Trump's top domestic energy adviser, Michael Catanzaro, has also resigned to return to his former lobbying practice. Banks and Catanzaro, both of whom have years of experience working on energy issues, have been replaced by two young newcomers to the field.<b> GOP political operative Wells Griffith, </b>whose only previous experience in energy was a one-year stint in Trump's Energy Department, has been appointed to lead international climate and energy strategy for the White House, while Francis Brooke, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence who moderated a panel on fossil fuels at last year's climate talks, will take Catanzaro's place as top domestic energy adviser.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Observers also are watching to see if the Trump administration follows through on a plan, first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-25/trump-is-said-to-pick-dobriansky-for-senior-state-department-job" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">reported by Bloomberg</a>, to nominate Paula Dobriansky, who was a lead climate negotiator under President George W. Bush, as undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department. Dobriansky's <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/2005_hr/051114-dobriansky.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">past statements</a> indicate that she accepts the reality of manmade climate change, although she favors "collaboration, not coercion," and close partnerships with industry. (When Bush backed out of the Kyoto accord, she gave <a href="https://twitter.com/jackcushmanjr/status/989537776092827650" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">credit </a>to the oil lobby.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the time being, Meyer sees the U.S. negotiating team as significantly hampered by its lack of high-level support and the power to deal. If his assessment is correct, even if the U.S. returns to the Paris Agreement in the future, it may be under rules that it was unable to influence.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You basically have a loss of leadership," he said. "The [U.S.] team is doing the best they can on the technical rules, but obviously they don't have as much leverage on that issue when they are not playing on other issues. They are negotiating with one hand tied behind their back, and that creates a vacuum that others are trying to figure out how to fill."</font></p></div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED UNDER:</font></label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/global-climate-treaty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/climate-denial" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">CLIMATE DENIAL</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">CLIMATE CHANGE</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT</a></div> <div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">DONALD TRUMP</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/mike-pompeo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">MIKE POMPEO</a></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div>