President Donald Trump tapped a former Texas regulator who has argued the moral case for fossil fuels to be the top White House environment official and the chief executive of AccuWeather to lead the federal government’s weather and climate science office, picks that drew immediate criticism.
Kathleen Hartnett White, a fellow at a think tank that advocates for coal and oil interests, was chosen by Trump to head the Council on Environmental Quality, an office that coordinates environmental reviews across the government.
Barry Myers, who leads AccuWeather, was named to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a Commerce Department office that oversees the National Weather Service. Myers had pushed to limit the services the federal weather forecaster could offer, saying it shouldn’t compete against his company.
Those choices drew criticisms from union officials, environmental advocates and lawmakers. They say both have views at odds with the core functions of the agencies they were tapped to head.
“We’ve seen a pattern in this administration of appointees who have significant conflicts — they come from the very industries they’d be overseeing, or have a record of opposition to the science-based implementation of the laws and rules they’d be implementing,” said Yogin Kothari, a Washington representative with the Center for Science and Democracy of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
A Department of Commerce spokesman said Myers has been a strong proponent of keeping weather data free and open to the public. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about White.
Myers, who was named CEO of the private weather forecaster in 2007, joins an administration packed with business leaders, as Trump has said successful business leaders can best bring the overhaul to government he seeks.
Myers’ background as an attorney is a departure from those of his immediate predecessors. President Barack Obama’s last NOAA administrator was Kathryn Sullivan, a geologist and the first American woman to walk in space.
“He is not even a meteorologist, he is a lawyer who happens to run a weather company,” Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employee Organization, said in a phone interview. The union opposes the choice.
NOAA’s mission ranges from predicting weather to managing fisheries to charting oceans. Under Obama the agency, expanded its work into research on the effects of climate change, tussling with congressional Republicans who questioned its research showing Earth’s temperatures have been rising.