President-elect Joe Biden has appointed a mix of Cabinet and White House officials who will compose the first “climate team.”
Some of them are pending Senate confirmation, while others don’t require it.
Together, Biden has charged the team with implementing his agenda to combat climate change, the most aggressive proposed by a presidential candidate, that calls for reaching net-zero emissions across the U.S. economy by 2050 and carbon-free electricity by 2035.
Other personnel choices not listed here are also expected to focus on climate change in ways their agencies have not previously, such as Janet Yellen at the Treasury Department, Pete Buttigieg as the transportation secretary, and Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary.
Here’s a rundown of Biden’s picks for the major environmental and energy roles, which fully formed looks like a “dream team” to liberal climate activists.
Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior
Haaland, who hails from New Mexico, would be the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. Haaland, recently elected to her second term in the House, is the vice chairwoman of the Natural Resources Committee, which supervises the Interior Department.
Haaland, 60, is known as an outspoken progressive and original “Green New Deal” sponsor whose advocacy for transitioning the United States to 100% clean energy would suggest she is eager to fulfill Biden’s campaign pledge to ban all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. That could be tricky for Haaland since New Mexico is the top producer of oil on federal lands.
Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy
Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, is expected to bring a focus on electric vehicles to the Energy Department and will work to enhance the technology’s role in moving the U.S. off fossil fuels.
Granholm, when she was governor, worked with Biden, then-President Barack Obama’s vice president, on the 2009 bailout of auto companies, saving the dominant industry in her state.
Since then, Granholm, 61, has promoted auto companies transitioning to electric vehicles as a way to revive the U.S. manufacturing base and create new jobs in clean energy.
She has pledged to strengthen the U.S. leadership position in developing clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and energy-efficient appliances, framing it as an economic competitiveness issue to counter China.
Michael Regan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Regan, 44, would join the EPA from leading North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality. There, he has helped implement Gov. Roy Cooper’s 2018 executive order setting a target for the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2025.
He has also taken on industry polluters. Earlier this year, Regan negotiated a major settlement with Duke Energy, in which the utility agreed to the nation’s largest coal ash cleanup.
If confirmed, Regan would be the first black man to lead the EPA and the second black administrator. He’s underscored his commitment to fulfilling Biden’s pledge to addressing the disproportionate effects pollution has on minority and low-income people.
Regan will also move to strengthen pollution regulations on industry weakened or removed by the Trump administration.
Brenda Mallory, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality
The council, or CEQ, coordinates environmental policy throughout the government and oversees the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act during assessments of permits and infrastructure projects. But it’s expected to also expand its focus to prod agencies to consider the effects of policies and projects on marginalized and low-income people.
Mallory, who would be the first black CEQ chairwoman, which is a Senate-confirmed position, is also expected to undo the Trump administration’s rewriting of NEPA regulations and to require infrastructure projects be reviewed for their cumulative greenhouses gas emissions under the law.
Mallory was general counsel of the CEQ in the Obama administration and worked 15 years at the EPA, where she rose to acting general counsel.
Gina McCarthy, National Climate Adviser
McCarthy will be Biden’s “climate czar,” overseeing and coordinating his domestic agenda to curb emissions.
McCarthy, 66, is a veteran in crafting regulations to address climate change. She led the EPA during the Obama administration’s second term and before that served as the agency’s top air official.
At the EPA, McCarthy helped craft the nation’s first emissions standards for cars, first carbon controls for power plants, and first limits on the potent greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas operations.
McCarthy joins the Biden administration from leading Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times over environmental rollbacks.
Republicans expect that McCarthy, a well known and popular figure, could wield more influence than Biden’s Cabinet secretaries despite her job not requiring Senate confirmation.
Ali Zaidi, Deputy National Climate Adviser
Zaidi, also an Obama administration veteran, is McCarthy’s younger and less-known deputy. He is the top climate aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where he has overseen the rollout of new climate regulations across various economic sectors in the state.
In the Obama administration, Zaidi, 32, who immigrated from Pakistan, oversaw energy and environmental policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
John Kerry, Climate Envoy
Kerry is not a part of the domestic climate team and was introduced weeks before the others. But he could be the most visible member of the group as a global climate diplomat, a newly created position. He does not require Senate confirmation.
Kerry, 77, served as secretary of state in the Obama administration’s second term, during which he helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. He’s also a former Democratic presidential candidate.
As the special climate envoy, he will be tasked with strengthening the U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement, which the Trump administration rejected.
Kerry will also look to elevate the climate issue into Biden’s foreign and national security policy with cabinet-level authority.
