Trump's Pick for Top Environmental Job Said Some Really Ridiculous Things About Climate Change
From EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, President Trump has filled his administration with a rogue's gallery of fossil fuel-loving climate deniers. Now he's set to have another: Kathleen Hartnett White
Last week, Trump nominated White, a longtime critic of climate change policy, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which advises the administration on environmental policy. If she is confirmed by the Senate, America will have yet another fox in charge of the henhouse, putting the global environment further at risk.
On Thursday, CNN reported on particularly incredulous remarks that she made last year during an interview with the conservative online talk show "The Right Perspective."
During that appearance, Hartnett White claimed that environmental leaders were using climate policy "to undermine the system of economic growth and industrialization."
She added, "There's a real dark side of the kind of paganism—the secular elites' religion now being, evidently, global warming."
Listen:
A staunch supporter of the fossil fuel industry who served as a Texas environmental regulator, Hartnett White is currently on the staff at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that fights against environmental regulation and clean energy.
While at the TPPF, she was tasked to "explain the forgotten moral case for fossil fuels," arguing that carbon dioxide "makes life possible on the earth and naturally fertilizes plant growth."
Kathleen Hartnett-White: Trump's pick to chair CEQ fought to "End regulation of CO2 as a pollutant" #protectcpp https://t.co/mDugyu9KOH http://pic.twitter.com/zSNUZPVi1F
— Energy & Policy Inst (@EnergyandPolicy) October 13, 2017
"Whether emitted from the human use of fossil fuels or as a natural (and necessary) gas in the atmosphere surrounding the earth, carbon dioxide has none of the attributes of a pollutant," she wrote in a 2014 paper in which she argued that "global warming alarmists are misleading the public about carbon dioxide emissions."
In a tweet, Earthjustice called on followers to not let the "frack first, ask questions later" climate denier "undermine science."
Don't let “frack first, ask questions later” climate denier Kathleen Hartnett undermine science. #ProtectNEPAhttps://t.co/loyOWJXDnJ
— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) October 13, 2017
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