President-elect Joe Biden has announced his picks for top environment and energy posts in his adminsitration.
Biden pledged to make climate change a centerpiece of his agenda, and has consistently described it as one of the four "major crises" facing the country along with the pandemic, the ailing economy, and calls for racial justice.
The president-elect will need a savvy team that can help him negotiate the politics and policies of a thorny issue where deep partisan divisions have doomed major legislative action for decades if he wants to be the climate president.
He's named climate change experts for top White House posts, like former secretary of State John Kerry, who will serve in Biden's White House as the first-ever presidential climate envoy. Brian Deese, who was then-President Obama's top climate change aide in the White House, will be Biden's lead White House economic advisor starting in January.
Biden rounded out the team this week, announcing on Thursday that former Obama climate officials Gina McCarthy and Ali Zaidi will return to government to serve in top climate posts in the White House.
He's also nominating North Carolina environmental official Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to head the Interior Department, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to take the helm of the Energy Department, and former Obama administration official Brenda Mallory to chair the Council on Environmental Quality.
"This brilliant, tested, trailblazing team will be ready on day one to confront the existential threat of climate change with a unified national response rooted in science and equity," Biden said Thursday in a statement.
Here's a look at the incoming officials.
Environmental Protection Agency
Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, is Biden's pick to lead the EPA.
Regan was appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to lead North Carolina's DEQ in 2017. He previously served in EPA's air office during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations before working at the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund and launching his own environmental consulting firm.
If he's confirmed by the Senate, he'll be the first Black man to lead the EPA. Regan has a history of working with the GOP-controlled legislature in North Carolina, which could come in handy when he faces Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Regan's name surfaced among EPA insiders after longtime California environmental regulator Mary Nichols lost her frontrunner status for the post. Criticisms of her record from environmental justice groups — coupled with pressure for more diversity in Biden's Cabinet — appear to have hurt her chances.
The next EPA leader is set to be at the center of Biden's effort to roll back Trump's climate change and environmental policies while putting stricter regulations in place. The job has long been one of the most contentious in the federal government, given industry opposition to costly environmental rules and deep political polarization over how to tackle climate change.
Interior Department
Biden has picked Haaland to lead the Interior Department. She'll be the first Native American to head the agency if she's confirmed by the Senate.
Haaland has served in the US House since January 2019 and was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. She had powerful lawmakers and some high-profile celebrities in her corner, urging Biden to elevate her to Interior's top job.
Democrats have grown increasingly concerned about an already slim House majority in 2021 getting even slimmer after two House lawmakers, Cedric Richmond and Marcia Fudge, are set to join the Biden administration. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Haaland for the job on Wednesday, giving the Biden team her blessing for picking Haaland but potentially complicating her own job next year.
Haaland beat out some other contenders for the post, including retiring New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, whose father was Interior secretary. Other people under consideration were veterans of the Obama Interior Department Michael Connor and Kevin Washburn.
Read more: Meet Deb Haaland, Biden's expected historic pick for Interior secretary.
Energy Department
Biden is nominating former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead the Energy Department. If confirmed, she'll also play a pivotal role in his climate change and clean energy agenda.
Granholm was Michigan's governor from 2003 until 2011. Prior to that, she served as the state's attorney general. She also worked on the Obama presidential transition team in 2008 and was rumored for a Cabinet job in that administration, but wasn't ultimately nominated.
Others who were under consideration to be Biden's energy secretary were Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a former deputy secretary at the Energy Department who was a Biden Senate staffer; Arun Majumdar, the leader of Biden's transition operation at the Energy Department; and Ernest Moniz, who was energy secretary under Obama.
Sources close to the transition suggested that Biden could hire Moniz for an advisory post in the White House, given his role in securing the Iran nuclear deal and the president-elect's pledge to reinstate that agreement.
National climate advisor
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who was central to writing climate regulations under the Obama administration, will serve as Biden's domestic White House climate advisor.
McCarthy started as president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council in January. She won't be the first ex-EPA boss to serve as a top White House climate official. Clinton-era EPA boss Carol Browner was climate "czar" in the Obama White House.
Her deputy will be Ali Zaidi, who served as a top energy and environment official in the Obama White House and is now deputy secretary for energy and environment to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Council on Environmental Quality
Biden selected Brenda Mallory to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. Mallory is a former EPA attorney who was CEQ's general counsel during the Obama administration.
Insiders expect that the Biden administration will use the CEQ, an agency within the White House that coordinates environmental policies, to elevate environmental justice issues across the administration.
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