The newest member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board is a climate change skeptic whose research has been debunked and who believes that burning fossil fuels is actually beneficial.

“There’s a benefit, not a cost, to producing energy from carbon,” John Christy, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, told E&E (Energy and Environment) News.

He didn’t elaborate, but he once told The Guardian: “Carbon dioxide makes things grow. Plants love this stuff. It creates more food. There is absolutely no question that carbon energy provides... longer and better lives.”

Christy also believes that regulations limiting greenhouse gases should be eliminated because he does not believe human activity is linked to global warming — which he is convinced is modest at best in any case.

“The overconfidence we have on the climate issue in the climate community is incredibly large, and we need to pull back on that,” he insisted to E&E News.

Christy initially argued in early research that the planet was actually cooling, not warming. But his findings were debunked by other scientists, and Christy eventually admitted that the research was flawed, The New York Times reported. He now insists the planet isn’t as warm as temperatures cited by scientific organizations indicate — but his scientific methods continue to be challenged by other researchers.