The DEQ's first director was Russell J. Harding, appointed by Engler. Harding "developed a national reputation for leading opposition to any state intervention on climate change as well as most other policy initiatives proposed by the federal government or by the states and provinces of the Great Lakes Basin." Under Harding, the Michigan DEQ "regularly spurned federal grants to study climate change" and rejected outreach from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking state engagement. Harding said that he believed that addressing climate change would cause an economic risk to the state.