A former staffer in the Barack Obama White House who went to work for climate activist groups joined a federal agency regulating energy under President Joe Biden and appears to still remain in his post under Donald Trump.

The staffer, Brett Cozzolino Bhave, has set off alarm bells among conservatives who support the Trump administration’s approach to energy and climate.

“During my time in the federal government, I learned that the idea that the federal government is staffed entirely with public servants who show up every day to do their jobs in an apolitical fashion is a myth,” Michael Chamberlain, president of the nonprofit watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Daily Signal. “While the number of activists in the civil service may be small, it is large enough to cause problems in an administration they disagree with.”

“Certainly, the odds of a political activist masquerading as a civil servant to oppose policies they don’t like are much greater if that person came from the activism world in the first place,” he added.

“Cozzolino’s past actions make it clear that he’s firmly committed to a vision contrary to that of President Trump, who won both the popular vote and the Electoral College by substantial margins,” E. Calvin Beisner, president of the Cornwall Alliance, told The Daily Signal. “There’s nothing wrong with public servants’ holding strong views, but when they serve their views instead of those of the majority, they cease to serve the public and serve themselves instead.”

Of Cozzolino, Beisner said, “He should show integrity by resigning. If he doesn’t, Trump should fire him.”

Who Is Brett Cozzolino?

According to the Office of Personnel Management, Brett Cozzolino started working as executive assistant to the acting director of OPM on Jan. 17, 2016, and joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as an energy industry analyst for litigation on Dec. 26, 2021. His name appears in a report on “political conversions,” which focus on political appointees who later took supposedly non-political “career” roles in the federal government.

According to the nationwide salary database OpenPayrolls, Cozzolino appears to have added a second last name—Bhave—before 2023. The database lists a Brett Cozzolino Bhave at FERC, and the details on the verified LinkedIn profile for a “Brett Bhave” match Cozzolino’s work history on the government employee database Legistorm. (The LinkedIn profile disappeared after The Daily Signal reached out to FERC for comment.)

According to LinkedIn and Legistorm, Cozzolino joined the Obama administration after working in the office of Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings, and after working for Obama at OPM (from Jan. 2016 to Jan. 2017), he worked for two climate activist groups, the World Resources Institute and the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The World Resources Institute publishes an annual “State of Climate Action” report, which the institute bill as “the most comprehensive roadmap yet for closing the global gap in climate action to help keep the Paris Agreement goal within reach.” The group publishes climate research and advocates for decreasing global carbon emissions on the assumption that these emissions harm the planet.

Similarly, the Yale University Forest School conducts “education and research” aiming to “increase understanding and leadership on forest-climate interactions, forest resilience, and the role of forests in mitigating climate change.” The Yale School of the Environment, which houses the Forest School, emphasizes climate adaptation and sustainability, mentioning the “climate crisis” in its annual report.

“FERC does not comment on individual personnel,” Celeste Miller, FERC’s acting director of media relations, told The Daily Signal. “Prior to appointments of former political staff, relevant candidates for positions at FERC receive a full review by OPM’s Merit System Accountability and Compliance Process.”

Deep State Opposition to Trump

An April poll found that a whopping 75% of Washington, D.C.-based federal employees making $75,000 or more per year who voted for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy.

While some political appointees who later took “career” positions—in a process often referred to as “burrowing in”—may faithfully work for the U.S. government under any president, this poll suggests that some staff inside the federal government may work against the goals of the current president, in this case Donald Trump.

Furthermore, a recent Foundation for Government Accountability study found that Democrat employees outnumber Republican employees by a 2-to-1 margin across federal agencies. In the 2024 presidential election, 84% of the money that federal employees gave in political contributions went to Harris.

The Daily Signal does not have any evidence that Cozzolino plans to oppose Trump from within.

The Daily Signal reached out to the Obama Foundation, the World Resources Institute, and the Yale School of the Environment for comment. None responded by publication time.

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