Saved by the bell

Kathleen Hartnett White will be spared another embarrassing interview.

The White House will withdraw its controversial nominee to head the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, according to three administration officials briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced yet.

[...]

A White House official confirmed in an email Saturday evening that Hartnett White had withdrawn her nomination, but did not provide further comment. Hartnett White could not be reached for comment.

[...]

One of the officials briefed on Hartnett White’s plans said that her nomination had failed to gather momentum even as some of the administration’s other senior environmental policy picks had won approval, with some Senate Republicans raising questions about her expertise.

  WaPo

Gee, why would they question that?

Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called her a “remarkable poor choice” for such a consequential environmental post.

“A 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 — a trifecta,” he said.

[...]

She is not the first Trump environmental nominee to fail to win confirmation. Michael Dourson, whose nomination to become the Environmental Protection Agency’s top chemical safety official drew widespread criticism, withdrew from consideration in December after it became clear that the Senate probably would not confirm him.

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.

I'm actually kind of surprised these people were rejected. Could it be that Republicans have actually started to be concerned about the environment? No, I lost my head there for a second. I don't know why they're rejecting them.

Okay, another one down.  Next?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oy

.

One of the most embarrassing political flops of 2017 was Donald Trump’s nomination of Kathleen Hartnett White, a longtime fossil-fuel advocate, to direct the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Her confirmation hearing was a disaster, captured for posterity on YouTube. While she made it out of committee on party lines, the full Senate declined to consider her nomination as part of a bipartisan deal.

Now, she’s back.

[...]

First, it was revealed that many of her written answers to the committee were apparently cut and pasted, word for word, from the answers submitted by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his assistant Bill Wehrum.

Then came the hearing itself.

At one point, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asked White to estimate how much of the excess heat from climate change is stored in the oceans—a detailed question for you or me, but pretty standard for a climate-policy person. White said she didn’t know, but said there were many opinions and “no right answer.”

[...]

Whitehouse asked if there was a “serious scientific opinion that it’s below 50 percent.” White said yes. Whitehouse said, “Wow.”

The actual answer is 90 percent, and there is no dispute about that.

Then Sen. Whitehouse asked if White agreed that water expands as it heats, a principle that can be proven on any kitchen stovetop. White said, “I do not have any kind of expertise or even much layman’s study of the ocean dynamics.”

[...]

White’s résumé certainly makes her appear to be bright and qualified. Her current title is “distinguished senior fellow in residence and director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & Environment” at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) [a conservative think tank]. Previously, she chaired the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under Gov. Rick Perry.

  Daily Beast

Well, there you go. Texas.

If you can bear to watch, that first hearing is embedded in the article. How can she not have enough self-respect to forego another round? Maybe she thinks they'll ask the same questions and she can have studied for the exam.

I don't trust the Senate to put her out a second time, either.

BTW, she's got a degree in religion.  Surprised?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.