President Trump is set to launch his long-awaited climate change assessment panel and the greenies are furious. Most especially they’re angry and fearful that the proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security will be led by one of the world’s most distinguished skeptics, physicist William Happer.

Trump’s new climate change panel is a total embarrassment. It’s being run by William Happer, who has no formal training as a climate scientist. He thinks we need MORE carbon pollution — a complete denial of scientific consensus and common sense. https://t.co/o85P5kt55N — Mike Levin (@MikeLevinCA) February 21, 2019

Happer is a brilliant scientist, a Princeton professor and former Director of the Office of Energy Research at the U.S. Department of Energy, with a track record which includes working on the U.S. government’s top secret weapons programs. But much to the climate establishment’s fury he is also very skeptical of man-made global warming and even more skeptical of the policy measures being introduced to ‘combat’ it.

As Happer noted in this long-read interview:

The predicted warming from more CO 2 is grossly exaggerated. The equilibrium warming from doubling CO 2 is not going to be 3° C, which might marginally be considered a problem, but closer to 1° C, which will be beneficial. One should not forget that the “global warming” is an average value. There will be little warming in the tropics and little warming at midday. What warming occurs will be mostly in temperate and polar regions, and at night. This will extend the agricultural growing season in many countries like Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia. More CO 2 greatly increases the efficiency of photosynthesis in plants and makes land plants more drought-resistant. So, the net result of more CO 2 will be strongly beneficial for humanity.

Short version: Happer thinks that CO2 does more good than harm.

Naturally, the left wing media is apoplectic.

According to Bloomberg, the creation of the new committee:

“…illustrates the seriousness of the Trump administration’s commitment to undermining a scientific and government consensus about the national security threat posed by climate change, as rising seas, more intense storms and deeper droughts threaten to uproot communities, destroy property and create new geopolitical tensions around the globe.”

According to the New York Times:

The effort to establish the panel appears to be the latest step by the Trump administration to question the science of climate change, as Mr. Trump rolls back Obama-era regulations on planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes and power plants. It also appears to be the latest example of Mr. Trump’s propensity to ignore the findings and recommendations of his own intelligence and defense officials.

And for some common sense, here is a response from someone on the skeptical side of the argument:

“It’s a great idea, spearheaded by a great guy,” said Steve Milloy, a policy adviser for the Heartland Institute, a group critical of climate science. “Sounds like the dishonest/know-nothing climate bedwetters in the national security apparatus — as well as those across the federal government — are about to get schooled in CO2 reality.”

Milloy is right. It’s a great idea for at least two excellent reasons.

First, in the short term, it’s a major step towards draining the global warming swamp – aka the Climate Industrial Complex. From NASA and NOAA to the Pentagon and, of course, the Environmental Protection Agency, every government department or agency – not to mention every academic institution – is chock full of Obama-era holdovers aggressively pushing the green narrative and undermining the MAGA agenda. Up till now, the Trump administration has made no formal attempt to challenge them on the science of their hysterical claims.

Second, in the longer term, it’s a much needed insurance policy against any future Democrat administration which wants to ruin the U.S. economy with something crazy like the Green New Deal. Up until now, the argument for climate skepticism has largely been made only by a small number of underfunded scientists, think tanks and maverick reporters – but never formally by the official establishment. Not even the EPA – despite Trump’s known skepticism about “climate change” – has been bold enough to question the climate “consensus.” This new committee could be a game changer.