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With help from Zack Colman, Anthony Adragna, Eric Wolff, Annie Snider, Bryan Bender and Ben Lefebvre
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WASHINGTON
Through four governors, two Obama terms and the Trump administration, Mary Nichols has led the charge to clean up California’s smog and fight climate change. In the process, she has earned herself a reputation as one of the most influential environmental regulators in the country.
So with Joe Biden headed to the White House, it was no surprise that Nichols quickly emerged as his top candidate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
But Nichols, who cultivated a national reputation as chair of the California Air Resources Board, appears now to have had her nomination derailed by critics at home. On Thursday, news broke that Biden had picked Michael Regan, the top environmental regulator in North Carolina, to run the EPA, making him the first Black man to head the agency as the president-elect promises to assemble a diverse Cabinet that will “look like America.”
2020/12/17 06:48 FILE - In this July 28, 2016, file photo, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in . FILE - In this July 28, 2016, file photo, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Biden is expected to pick his former rival Pete Buttigieg as secretary of transportation and Granholm as energy secretary. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, President-elect Joe Biden s nominee to be transportation secretary, speaks as Biden looks on during a ne. Former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, President-elect Joe Biden s nominee to be transportation secretary, speaks as Biden looks on during a news conference at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP)
Can California’s cap and trade address environmental justice? Julia Rosen Wed, 12/16/2020 – 01:30 Growing up in North Richmond, California, Denny Khamphanthong didn’t think much of the siren that wailed once a month at 11 a.m. every first Wednesday. The alarm is a test of the community’s emergency warning system, which has alerted residents to numerous incidents over the years at the nearby Chevron oil refinery. One accident there a 2012 fire sent a cloud of black smoke billowing over San Francisco Bay and left thousands of local residents struggling to breathe. Now, when Khamphanthong explains the sound to his young nieces, he sees the fear in their eyes. “I forget that this isn’t normal,” he says. Nor is the fact that Khamphanthong and most of his childhood friends carried inhalers. Richmond, a diverse, industrial city where housing prices and incomes have lagged behind its Bay Area neighbors, has poor air quality and some of the highest rates of respiratory
Governors Wind Energy Coalition
Mary Nichols, fading as EPA contender, talks civil rights Source: By Maxine Joselow, E&E News reporter • Posted: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
At 18 years old, Mary Nichols attended the 1963 March on Washington, the largest gathering for civil rights of its time.
Then as a rising sophomore at Cornell University, Nichols spent a summer in Fayette County, Ga., a historically Black area, to help people register to vote.
These early experiences were the focus of an unusual event yesterday where Nichols, who is white, sought to cast herself as an ally of the struggle for racial justice.
The event came after more than 70 groups urged President-elect Joe Biden not to nominate Nichols to lead EPA, saying she promoted policies that concentrated pollution in communities of color as chair of the California Air Resources Board (