The move is part of a larger effort by the Biden administration to clean up the home of President Donald Trump’s nominated politicians in scientific positions. Recently, the EPA ended the entire Scientific Advisory Board created by the Trump administration.
Weatherhead is considered a conventional scientist and believes that climate change was a real and serious problem.
She is an atmospheric scientist who had been detailed in the White House Office of Geological Sciences of U.S. Geological Policy under the previous administration and will now return to the USGS, the official said.
The move will come as the White House will hold a climate summit on Thursday and Friday and publish its 2030 emissions targets for the United States.
Weatherhead was nominated for her role on the National Climate Assessment by Kelvin Droegemeier, who was the director of OSTP under Trump.
While Droegemeier had taken advantage of Weatherhead, which sees climate change as a legitimate threat, to lead the national climate assessment, other officials who presented the study during the Trump administration maintained differing views.