Story highlights Kathleen Hartnett White described the belief in "global warming" as a "kind of paganism" for "secular elites."

As head of the Council on Environmental Quality, Hartnett White would oversee environmental and energy policies across the government.

(CNN) President Donald Trump's nominee to be the White House senior adviser for environmental policy in 2016 described the belief in "global warming" as a "kind of paganism" for "secular elites."

Trump last week nominated Kathleen Hartnett White, who previously led the Texas Commision on Environmental Quality, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a post that requires Senate confirmation. Hartnett White, currently a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, has long expressed skepticism about established climate science and once dismissed the idea that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, calling it "the gas of life on this planet."

As head of the Council on Environmental Quality, Hartnett White would oversee environmental and energy policies across the government.

Hartnett White appeared on "The Right Perspective," an online conservative radio show, in September 2016 when she made the comments talking about a "dark side" to belief in global warming.

"There's a real dark side of the kind of paganism -- the secular elites' religion now -- being evidently global warming," Hartnett White said.

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