Each of President Biden’s nominees for the big three energy and environment agencies should be installed in their jobs any day now, giving the administration more firepower as it progresses on an aggressive climate change agenda it began implementing without key personnel in place.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, is already fast at work after being easily confirmed last week, emerging as the pitchwoman for Biden’s climate agenda that aims to begin phasing out fossil fuels en route to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
Granholm delivered her first public address Wednesday before an energy industry conference, promoting a vision of the Energy Department as a hub for developing electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines and batteries, as a way to revive the U.S. manufacturing base and create new jobs. She’s also spoken frankly about the challenge of matching lost coal, oil, and gas jobs with those in clean energy, promising she won’t “sugarcoat how hard transitions are.”
BIDEN ‘TWISTED’ DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS IN KNOTS WITH FREEZE ON FRACKING LEASES
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday the Senate will vote next week on Michael Regan to be administrator of Environmental Protection Agency and Deb Haaland for Interior Secretary.
Haaland has been targeted by Republicans because of her liberal politics and statements opposing fossil fuel development when she was a member of the House, although her confirmation never appeared truly in doubt.
Haaland earned Energy Committee approval Thursday, managing to pick up the vote of one Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, after previously winning over the panel’s Democratic chairman, Joe Manchin. Murkowski and Manchin represent major oil and gas states.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also plans to vote for Haaland, but she is not a member of the Energy Committee.
Those pickups provide a buffer for when Haaland gets a vote before the full Senate, which is split 50-50.
Haaland, who would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary, will be charged with managing Interior’s oil and gas leasing program and expanding production of renewable energy on public lands and waters. Biden has paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as part of his climate agenda, a policy that has challenged Democratic governors from fossil fuel-dependent states.
Regan has kept a lower profile than Granholm and Haaland.
Regan, a former North Carolina environmental official, generally received positive reviews from Republican senators during his confirmation hearing on Feb. 3, even from those who were critical of Biden’s executive actions on climate change. He has sought to assure Republicans he wouldn’t use emissions mandates for power plants and vehicles as the sole method of dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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Biden’s agency leaders would join climate envoy John Kerry and adviser Gina McCarthy, who are in White House positions that don’t require Senate confirmation.
