Guest essay by Eric Worrall
President Trump has nominated a climate skeptic who credits the rise of fossil fuels for the end of slavery to head the Council on Environmental Quality.
Trump to nominate climate doubter as environmental adviser (Update)
October 13, 2017 by Michael Biesecker
President Donald Trump will nominate a climate change skeptic with ties to the fossil fuel industry to serve as a top environmental adviser.
The White House on Thursday announced the selection of Kathleen Hartnett White of Texas to serve as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. White served under former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now Trump’s energy secretary, for six years on a commission overseeing the state environmental agency.
White was fiercely critical of what she called the Obama administration’s “imperial EPA” and pushed back against stricter limits on air and water pollution. She is a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that has received funding from fossil-fuel companies that include Koch Industries, ExxonMobil and Chevron.
In a 2014 policy paper titled “Fossil Fuels: The Moral Case,” White praised the burning of coal and petroleum for “vastly improved living conditions across the world” and credited fossil fuels with ending slavery.
…
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune called White’s selection “outrageous.”
“The nomination of Kathleen Hartnett White is the nightmare scenario for anyone who wants clean air and clean water,” he said. “Her record makes clear she is completely ready and willing to sell out the health of our kids to corporate polluters.”
Read more: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-trump-climate-doubter-environmental.html
What can I say – anyone who upsets the Sierra Club that badly has got to be worth a go.
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Why does this nomination only happen after the best part of year since the election? Was it simply because the role was fixed term and not due to be filled until a pre-specified date, or could a different incoming administration remove her on day one?
Sierra means saw in Spanish. Show up to their meetings with a Stihl for a literal laugh.