Our People

Before working in energy policy, Mike Catanzaro began his career as a writer and reporter for nationally syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak. In that role, he edited the Evans-Novak Political Report and helped draft columns that appeared in major newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Post.

Throughout his career, Catanzaro has served in several senior policy positions in the federal government, including the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the White House.

Catanzaro served as Special Assistant to President Trump for Domestic Energy and Environmental Policy at the White House National Economic Council. In that role, he advised the president on a range of issues and helped craft energy and environmental policy across multiple agencies.

He also was deputy staff director and communications director of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and served on the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign as a top adviser on energy and environmental policy.

During the George W. Bush Administration, he was Associate Director for Policy in the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Associate Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

He also served as a senior energy and environmental policy adviser to then-Speaker John Boehner.

Catanzaro is a Non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Chairman of the Policy and Digital Advisory Board of the Energy Consumer Market Alignment Project; and a former Visiting Policy Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

In 2022, Catanzaro was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of “Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People.”

Catanzaro received his B.A. from Fordham University in political science and philosophy, and an M.A. in Government from John Hopkins University.