Washington, D.C. – President Trump is reportedly now considering Donald van der Vaart, former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) after Kathleen Hartnett White recently withdrew from consideration following stinging critiques of her record.

If nominated, van der Vaart would enter the national stage with a long and troubling record of hostility to environmental protection in North Carolina. He has sued the EPA over the Clean Power Plan, questioned the role humans play in climate change, repeatedly expressed a total disregard for established science, called for the repeal of key provisions in the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and has been accused of politically-motivated decision making — just to name a few of his offenses.

“Donald van der Vaart is an anti-environmental ideologue who consistently stood with polluters over people,” said Dan Crawford, Director of Government Relations for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters. “While in North Carolina he did nothing to protect our air and water for North Carolinians or future generations. In 2016 the voters of North Carolina rejected the McCrory-Van der Vaart pro-polluter agenda, and the rest of the country should too.”

“If the administration nominates van der Vaart after the failed nomination of Kathleen Hartnett White, it will show their continued disregard for our health and our environment and their continued bad judgment in tapping unfit individuals for key environmental positions,” said Sara Jordan, Legislative Representative for the League of Conservation Voters. “The people of this country have no need for another appointee with a Scott Pruitt-like history of putting industry interests ahead of the health and safety of our environment and our families.”