At the right-wing Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) held in Washington, D.C., last week, speakers mocked their usual cast of environmental targets: Greta Thunberg, John Kerry, and of course, Al Gore. But the fringe climate denial movement that Heartland represents and promotes might be facing a new threat, this time from within the Trump base itself: Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). On a panel called ‘The Most Important Upcoming Battles’ at the group’s annual conference, Heartland board member and Energy & Environmental Legal Institute Fellow Steve Milloy called the MAHA movement and its champion, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, a ‘left-wing op’ that the Trump administration needs to ‘get rid of.’ Milloy, who denies anthropogenic climate change and founded the website JunkScience.com, said the MAHA movement was a risk to everything from the global food supply to the fossil fuel industry. As Kennedy testifies before Congress this week about his health agenda, Milloy’s comments at the ICCC’s two-day event highlight a growing rift between what was once seen as a largely aligned Trump coalition. In the past, fringe climate-denial groups like Heartland primarily faced opposition from progressives and environmental advocates. ‘People that are worried about everything in the environment used to be the Democratic Party and the radical environmental groups,’ Milloy said. ‘Now, it’s a feature of the Trump administration.’ Subscribe to our newsletter Stay up to date with DeSmog news and alerts Name –> Email Address What content do you want to subscribe to? (check all that apply) All International UK Sign Up Panels at the conference focused on debunking proven climate science, and what speakers characterized as Trump-era deregulation ‘wins,’ particularly Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s decision to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding. Milloy and fellow panelists Jason Isaac, CEO of the fossil fuel advocacy group the American Energy Institute, Willis Eschenbach, who Heartland refers to as an ‘amateur scientist, and Angela Wheeler with the CO2 Coalition, which argues that carbon dioxide is beneficial to the environment, spoke about the major battles facing the climate denial movement, with a particular focus on the rise and influence of MAHA. MAHA is ‘wrong about everything,’ according to Milloy, including its push to pressure the EPA to regulate food additives, pesticides, microplastics, and PFAS, or forever chemicals — all of which have been linked to serious health risks. ‘It’s only a matter of time before they become interested in climate,’ Milloy said. ‘The microplastics scare is actually a climate-op, right? It’s another way to get to the fossil fuel industry and to get to the oil and gas industry because that’s where plastic comes from — the petrochemical industry.’ When asked to respond to Milloy’s remarks, HHS pushed back. ‘These claims are inaccurate,’ an HHS official told DeSmog in an email statement. ‘The Trump administration, including HHS, will no longer weaponize federal food policy to destroy the livelihoods of hard-working American ranchers and protein producers under the radical dogma of the Green New Scam.’ ‘HHS is focused on supporting policies that improve access to fresh, healthy food, and strengthen the systems that sustain public health,’ the statement went on to say. ‘Secretary Kennedy is committed to ensuring not just the survival, but the prosperity, of American Farmers.’ DeSmog reached out to several MAHA activists for comment, including Kelly Ryerson, Alex Clark, and Courtney Swan, but none responded by press time. Regulate vs. Deregulate Both MAHA and climate denial advocates have been criticized for dismissing peer-reviewed research and cherry-picking scientific data. But a clear fissure is emerging: One faction is pushing for stricter environmental and public health regulations (particularly around chemicals and food), while the other is actively working to dismantle them. In recent months, the Trump administration, and Zeldin specifically, have struggled to keep members of the MAHA movement happy. In December, MAHA activists even circulated a petition urging Trump to fire Zeldin over his decisions to loosen chemical regulations after the EPA approved the use of two separate pesticides. ‘What kind of Republicans go after a Republican administrator?’ Milloy asked during the panel. These internal fractures may also be fostering unlikely bedfellows between MAHA and progressives. Last week, MAHA activist Kelly Ryerson and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) teamed up to co-write an op-ed for The Hill against the chemical industry and federal pesticide preemptions. Ryerson and Pingree stated that they are ‘united by three simple beliefs: that everyone should be able to eat food that is free of toxic chemicals; that people should have proper warning about possible health risks associated with chemical use; and that giant corporations should not get special immunity when their products pose real health risks.’ The day after the op-ed appeared, Trump hosted MAHA activists and influencers at the White House for a private strategy session aimed at easing tensions ahead of the midterms, according to The New York Times. Around the same time, the EPA also decided to halt the approval of dozens of forever chemicals. Taken together, the MAHA Oval Office meeting and the EPA’s current PFAS posture ‘reflects the fragility’ of the Trump administration’s alliance with the MAHA movement, as The Times said, and shows that MAHA, at least for now, holds significant sway over the administration’s environmental narrative. As of now, it’s unclear if Milloy’s alarm will materialize into MAHA shifting its sights to targeting the fossil fuel industry for producing emissions, especially now that the EPA has repealed the endangerment finding, which concludes that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to human health and welfare. Still, at the panel Milloy remained adamant. ‘[MAHA] is not science-based and the science is what I care about. It is very disheartening to me,’ he said in closing. ‘If they succeed with microplastics, they’re going to cause real problems…They’re going to get to climate.’ Rachel Santarsiero is the director of the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Security Archive. The post ‘Get Rid of MAHA’: Trump Alliance Cracks as Climate Denialists Turn on RFK Jr.’s Movement appeared first on DeSmog.

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