Trump’s top environmental pick says she has ‘many questions’ about climate change

The following article by Chris Mooney was posted on the Washington Post website November 8, 2017:

This story has been updated. 

Kathleen Hartnett White, President Trump’s pick to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Kathleen Hartnett White, President Trump’s pick to serve as his top White House environmental official, told the Senate Wednesday that she had doubts about the link between human activity and climate change.

“I’m not a scientist, but in my personal capacity, I have many questions that remain unanswered by current climate policy,” Hartnett White, Trump’s nominee to lead the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, told senators Wednesday at her confirmation hearing. “I think we indeed need to have more precise explanations of the human role and the natural role.”

She did acknowledge that there was probably some human contribution, “the extent to which I think is very uncertain.” That contradicts leading scientific assessments on the matter, which have pinned climate change largely on human greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading “Trump’s top environmental pick says she has ‘many questions’ about climate change”