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US president-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Michael Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, to head the country’s Environmental Protection Agency, sources said on Thursday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr Regan would become the first black person to run the EPA and one of the key players in Mr Biden’s agenda to reverse environmental rollbacks under outgoing president Donald Trump and fight climate change by bringing the US economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EPA administrator is the top US environmental regulator.
Mr Biden is in the midst of building his cabinet ahead of his January 20th inauguration and is expected to unveil Mr Regan as part of a core team to tackle global warming that will also include picks for energy secretary, interior secretary and White House climate co-ordinator.
Mr Biden was also reported on Thursday to have selected New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland as his nomination for the post of interior secretary. Ms Haaland (60), a Democratic member of the House of Representatives since 2019, would be the first Native American cabinet secretary and the first to oversee the department, whose jurisdiction includes tribal lands.
She has said she would seek to usher in an expansion of renewable energy production on federal land to contribute to the fight against climate change, and undo Mr Trump’s focus on bolstering fossil fuels output.
Climate change
Mr Regan (44), brings years of experience dealing with fossil fuel industries in his home state of North Carolina, including overseeing a roughly $9 billion (€7.3 billion)settlement agreement with utility Duke Energy for the nation’s largest clean-up of coal ash.
Prior to serving as secretary of the North Carolina department of environmental quality, he worked at the EPA in its air quality and energy programmes under presidents of both parties, and also worked on climate change and pollution initiatives for the Environmental Defence Fund, a green advocacy group.
Environmental organisations and representatives of the fossil fuel industry praised the choice.
California’s environmental chief Mary Nichols had been seen as the front-runner for the EPA job for her efforts to fight climate change by curbing power and transportation emissions in the most-populous US state.
But Mr Biden’s team had become concerned that a climate fighter from left-leaning California could have a hard time getting confirmed in a politically divided Senate, and that Mr Regan would be less controversial, one of the sources said.
Environmental groups in California had criticised Ms Nichols, arguing she had not done enough to protect low-income and minority communities suffering from industrial pollution – an accusation she rejected.
Challenges
Mr Regan’s role as head of EPA would present him huge challenges, from enacting Mr Biden’s climate goals to rebuilding staff morale after four years during which Mr Trump’s administration sought to roll back green protections to ease fossil fuel development. Mr Trump also abandoned an international accord aimed at fighting climate change.
The EPA has become politically charged over the past decade after Republicans accused former president Barack Obama of using the agency improperly to fight climate change and impose regulatory burdens on polluting energy industries that provide millions of jobs.
Mr Biden and other Democrats have argued since that fighting climate change can create jobs and spur economic growth by fostering new clean energy industries to replace those in traditional drilling and mining. – Reuters