Michael Barbaro

Her partner in trying to repeal the endangerment finding was an attorney named Jonathan Brightbill.

He had served in the Justice Department under the first Trump administration.

Everyone we have talked to has described him as a very sharp legal mind who really knows his way around the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.

and has made the argument in court that Democratic administrations have really overreached in their efforts to impose regulations to address climate change.

He was essentially dealing with the downstream effects of the endangerment finding.

Because of the endangerment finding...

EPA has been dealing with a whiplash of regulations.

They have been created in Democratic administrations, erased in Republican administrations, and fought in courts the entire time.

Withdrawing the endangerment finding eliminates this situation entirely.

And that's what Gunasekara and Brightbill plotted to do.

And how do they actually go about doing that?

So in the summer of 2022, Gunasekara and Brightbill start seeking funding for a big new project.

They want to create a secret operation to kill the endangerment finding.

They pitched conservative organizations.

They asked for about $2 million for the ability to work on scientific studies and research from scientists who disagree with the mainstream science.

They would start laying out the legal case for repealing the endangerment finding.

All of these things were things that could be used by a next Republican president, they hoped, Donald Trump, on day one.

They did eventually receive funding from a conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation.

The Heritage Foundation would go on to lead Project 2025, the blueprint for the next Republican president.

And Mandy Gunasekara wrote the EPA chapter for Project 2025.