Taylor attended the University of Iowa as a political science major.[citation needed] As a student, Taylor became an editor of the Hawkeye Review, a conservative student newspaper that served as an alternative to the Daily Iowan, and founded “Students for Traditional American Freedoms”, a conservative activist group.
Career
Before founding the Niskanen Center in 2014, Taylor was a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, where he previously espoused a skeptical position on environmental issues.[2] Taylor's case is a prominent example of a former climate-change denier who came to embrace policies to address climate change after researching the scientific consensus behind man-made global warming.[3]
During the 1990s and 2000s Taylor made regular media appearances as a global warming denier, including on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit as well as a special edition of the John Stossel show devoted to attacking climate science. After being challenged by Joe Romm to fact-check sources, Taylor changed his prior beliefs because "the scientific evidence became stronger and stronger over time."[3][2][4]
On September 6 2021, Taylor resigned from the Niskanen Institute. He had been placed on administrative leave by the Institute a few days earlier after the board became aware of him being charged with domestic violence against his wife.[5] Those charges were subsequently dismissed in court.