By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - A White House aide who hadinsisted that carbon dioxide emissions were good for the planetand tried to form a panel questioning climate science used inU.S. military and intelligence reports will step down this week,a nonprofit group he co-founded said on Wednesday.
William Happer, a retired Princeton University physicsprofessor who lacks a background in climate science, had triedto form a National Security Council panel to question thescience used in reports showing that human-driven climate changeposes national security risks.
Happer and others at the NSC had started work to form https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-climate/white-house-drafts-guidelines-for-panel-questioning-climate-threat-to-security-idUSKCN1QI385the panel in February. But President Donald Trump did notproduce an executive order calling for it, effectively puttingthe idea on hold.
Happer's boss at the NSC, John Bolton, who supported thepanel and tried to convince military and intelligence officialsit was a good idea, was fired by Trump on Tuesday over policydisagreements on North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan.
The CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit group that Happer co-foundedin 2015, said he would step down on Friday.
The NSC did not immediately return a request for comment.
The CO2 group says it was formed to tell policymakers "aboutthe important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our livesand the economy," arguing that the gas that scientists blame forwarming the earth is good for plant growth.
Happer said on CNBC in 2014 that carbon dioxide has beendemonized, “just like the demonization of the poor Jews underHitler.”
The group said it supported Happer's effort to improvegovernment science which it said produced "unsound and wildlyexaggerated reports on the impact of carbon dioxide emissions onglobal temperature and hence weather variables."
Trump has repeatedly questioned whether humans are causingclimate change and has been angered by reports from his militaryand intelligence agencies that climate change poses nationalsecurity risks. His administration has pursued policies to boostoutput of oil, gas and coal and roll back emissions limits onpower plants, cars and trucks.
U.S. military bases, including North Carolina’s CampLejeune, have suffered billions of dollars in damage from recenthurricanes. Intensified storms, droughts and floods driven byclimate change could also cost the military by forcing it toincrease global humanitarian missions.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Andrea Ricci)