{"id":58036,"date":"2018-02-05T05:48:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58036"},"modified":"2018-02-05T05:48:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:48:53","slug":"white-house-withdraws-controversial-nominee-head-council-environmental-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/white-house-withdraws-controversial-nominee-head-council-environmental-quality.html","title":{"rendered":"White House withdraws controversial nominee to head Council on Environmental Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"

White House withdraws controversial nominee to head Council on Environmental Quality<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The White House has withdrawn its controversial nominee to head the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, whose selection failed to gather momentum with some Senate Republicans raising questions about her expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The administration released a statement Sunday in which Hartnett White asked that her name be pulled from further consideration, effective immediately. President Trump had re-nominated Hartnett White for the job in January after the Senate failed to vote on her nomination during the last congressional session, due in part to fierce opposition from Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank President Trump for his confidence in me and I will continue to champion his policies and leadership on environmental and energy issues of critical importance to making our nation great, prosperous and secure again,\u201d she said in the statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in this process for more than a year,\u201d she continued, asking that her name be withdrawn \u201cin the best interest of facilitating confirmation of the President\u2019s nominees throughout his administration, as well the needs of my family and work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartnett White, who once headed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and now serves as a fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has stirred controversy because of her statements on climate change. Testifying in the fall before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, she said that while humans probably contribute to current warming, \u201cthe extent to which, I think, is very uncertain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her comments, which echoed some other appointees of President Trump, contradict the conclusion of an overwhelming number of scientific experts and the findings of the federal government. Leading scientific assessments have repeatedly found that recent climate change is fueled largely by human greenhouse gas emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a scientist, but in my personal capacity, I have many questions that remain unanswered by current climate policy,\u201d Hartnett White said at her confirmation hearing. \u201cI think we indeed need to have more precise explanations of the human role and the natural role.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Just days before she testified, the federal government released its Climate Science Special Report, a collaboration among more than a dozen agencies that found \u201cno convincing alternative explanation\u201d other than human influence for the warming the world has experienced in the past 70 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,\u201d the document stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked during her hearing by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) what portion of the heat trapped in Earth\u2019s atmosphere is absorbed by the world\u2019s oceans \u2014 the majority of it is stored there \u2014 Hartnett White responded, \u201cI don\u2019t have numbers like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I believe that there are differences of opinions on that, that there\u2019s not one right answer,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitehouse later tweeted that Harnett White \u201coutright rejects basic science.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the mainstream scientific community agreed. In November, more than 300 scientists from around the country signed a letter urging the Senate to reject her confirmation. It cited her \u201cdangerous\u201d views about climate change, saying. \u201cThis is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of defending scientific integrity.\u201d Confirming Harnett White, the group said, \u201cwould have serious consequences for people and the ecosystems of the only planet that can support us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her withdrawal from consideration for the Council on Environmental Quality was first reported Saturday by The Washington Post.<\/span><\/p>\n

The influence of the CEQ, established in 1970 under the Nixon administration, has waxed and waned depending on who occupies the Oval Office. It coordinates activities across agencies and typically holds more power under Democratic presidents. But it played an important role under President George W. Bush on issues ranging from ocean conservation to air quality, in part because its chair, James L. Connaughton, served for the entirety of Bush\u2019s two terms.<\/span><\/p>\n

On policy issues such as infrastructure, for example, the CEQ typically would convene representatives from a variety of agencies when formulating an overall administration approach. Trump has empowered the council to accelerate the construction of infrastructure projects in the United States through executive orders, and that work is being done at the staff level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before being nominated, Hartnett White criticized the 2007 Supreme Court decision finding that the federal government had the legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI take issue with that,\u201d she told The Post in an interview in the fall of 2016. \u201cCarbon dioxide has none of the characteristics of a pollutant that could harm human health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, she described carbon dioxide \u2014 emissions of which rank as one of the primary ways human activity contributes to climate change \u2014 as a key asset to the planet. \u201cOur flesh, blood and bones are built of carbon,\u201d she wrote in 2016. \u201cCarbon dioxide (CO2) is the gas of life on this planet, an essential nutrient for plant growth on which human life depends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She made similar arguments in a book she co-wrote in 2016, titled \u201cFueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy,\u201d as well as in numerous essays questioning climate change, including one last year in which she called President Barack Obama\u2019s efforts to slow global warming by reducing carbon emissions \u201cdeluded and illegitimate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her co-author on that book, Stephen Moore, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and an economic adviser to the Trump campaign, said in an email Sunday that she was \u201cuniquely qualified\u201d for the White House environmental post.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe led the Texas environmental protection agency during a period of rapid growth in the Lone Star state economy and declining pollution levels,\u201d Moore wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want for the nation. Faster growth and a cleaner environment. And she shows that prosperity and clean air can go hand in hand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartnett White is not the first Trump environmental nominee to fail to win confirmation. Michael Dourson, whose nomination to become the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s top chemical safety official drew widespread criticism, withdrew from consideration in December after it became clear that the Senate probably would not confirm him.<\/span><\/p>\n

A longtime toxicologist who worked at the EPA from 1980 to 1994, Dourson was closely tied to the chemical industry through a nonprofit consulting group he founded shortly after leaving the agency. Over the years, it produced research for chemical companies that consistently found little or no human health risks from their products. Critics said Dourson had too many conflicts of interest to be considered for an Environmental Protection Agency post in which he might oversee reviews of chemicals produced by companies he once represented.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, news of Hartnett White\u2019s withdrawal triggered relief among some of her staunchest critics. Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called her a \u201cremarkably poor choice\u201d for such a consequential environmental post.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA while ago, I wrote that many Trump appointees to science-based positions could be considered to either have deep conflicts of interest, to be fundamentally opposed to the mission of the agency they were to lead or totally unqualified. Hartnett-White was all three \u2014 a trifecta,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (Del.), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement Saturday evening that it was \u201cabundantly clear very early on that heading up the Council on Environmental Quality wasn\u2019t the right job for Ms. White.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, he said, \u201cWithdrawing Kathleen Hartnett White\u2019s nomination is the right thing to do, and I believe it is past time for this administration to nominate a thoughtful environmental and public health champion to lead this critical office in the federal government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/energy-environment\/wp\/2018\/02\/03\/white-house-to-withdraw-controversial-nominee-to-head-council-on-environmental-quality\/?utm_term=.8c9e7a11a0c4<\/span><\/p>\n

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