Story highlights Kathleen Hartnett White is nominated to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality

"I think science should overwhelmingly guide assessments ... but I don't think they dictate policy results," she said

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's picks for two key environmental jobs were chided by Democrats on Wednesday for their positions questioning the science behind climate change.

Kathleen Hartnett White, the nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was challenged by senators over her doubts about the causes of climate change, going against the scientific consensus that man-made greenhouse gases are the primary driver of rising temperatures and associated impacts.

"It's likely that CO2 emissions from human activity have some influence on the climate," she said. "But CO2 in the atmosphere has none of the characteristics of a pollutant that contaminates and fouls and all of that that has direct -- can have direct impact on human health as an atmospheric gas.

"It's a plant nutrient," she added.

Of the role of science, White said: "I think science should overwhelmingly guide assessments and all of that, but I don't think they dictate policy results."

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