Zeus: Howard Lutnick and the battle for Trump's climate agenda

Wall Street veteran's role and his position on climate and clean energy will be more important to Trump's agenda than his new title implies.

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Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald USA, speaking at the 2023 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Photo: World Economic Forum/Manuel Lopez.

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc. His climate columns have appeared in USA Today, The Independent, and New Thinking magazine).

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — At first glance, Howard Lutnick’s nomination as Commerce Secretary this week by President-elect Donald Trump might seem like a consolation prize for not getting Treasury Secretary, which he fought for as head of Trump’s transition team.

But the traditionally low-profile role of commerce in a presidential cabinet takes on extra significance under this new Trump regime and might position Lutnick as the key driver of any anti-climate agenda Trump deems to follow.