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Carolyn Kaster / AP
Environmental groups in Pennsylvania are expressing support for President Elect Joe Biden’s pick of Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
If confirmed, Regan would be the first black man to head the EPA. A native of North Carolina, he worked in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations before becoming the head of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality in 2017. At that job, he worked on climate change, coal ash, and environmental justice issues.
Joe Minott, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, says he thinks Regan was a good choice to lead the agency given the Biden administration’s focus on addressing climate and environmental racism.
Why Michael Regan is a Transformational Pick to Head the EPA
Dec 22, 2020
The announcement last week of Michael Regan as President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator was historic: he will be the first Black American man to lead the EPA.
Michael Regan rounds out a heavy-hitting climate team
He will also be an integral part of the first-ever
Climate Team, made up of some heavy hitters, including Representative Deb Haaland as the first Native American Secretary of Interior, former Governor
Jennifer Granholm as the second woman Secretary of Energy, Brenda Mallory as the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy as the National Climate Advisor, and Ali Zaidi as the Deputy National Climate Advisor.
AMY GOODMAN: This is
Democracy Now! The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We get a response now to President-elect Joe Biden’s announcement Saturday of the members of his climate team, who will tackle what he called the, quote, “existential” threat of the climate crisis. His picks include Democratic Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Interior Department, making her the first Native American Cabinet secretary in history, if confirmed, and Michael Regan, head of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, who would be the first Black man to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Biden also picked longtime environmental attorney Brenda Mallory to chair Biden’s Council on Environmental Quality; Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA under Obama, will lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy; and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to be energy secretary. Last month, Biden named former Secretary of State John Kerry as international pres