Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC -- Today, Scripps News reported that Donald Trump’s nominee for the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, is distancing herself from her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. During her confirmation hearing, Hartnett White told Senators that she “would never, ever tell staff to under report health hazards. That’s the only statement I wanted to make,” yet while chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, she helped oversee an attempt to underreport radiation levels in drinking water.
A current spokesperson for Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt’s EPA acknowledged that when the EPA discovered Hartnett White’s actions, it called for the practice to be stopped. According to Scripps, the spokesperson added that the Agency is not aware of any other state that ran Hartnett White’s scheme.
"When a person has gone too far to protect corporate polluters even by the Trump administration's extremely low standards, you know they're a direct threat to the safeguards protecting Americans’ clean air and water,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. “The fact that Kathleen Hartnett White blessed dangerous and illegally high levels of radiation for our drinking water should disqualify her from getting anywhere near the safeguards that protect our families."
In Hartnett White’s written answers to the committee, she defended deliberately misrepresenting water radiation levels. The other week, Hartnett White was caught plagiarizing her written answers. Yesterday, Senator Tom Carper, the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works committee called for Hartnett White’s nomination to be sent back to the White House.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.