North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, Michael S. Regan, has been chosen by president-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, reports The New York Times.
If the position is confirmed, Mr. Regan will be the first Black man to lead the E.P.A. Although the environmental regulator was not Biden’s first choice, he will lead the new administration’s effort to undo President Trump’s devastating regulations that have unraveled half-century of pollution and climate regulations, and the diminishment of the science that underpinned them.
This decision was announced by Mr. Biden’s transition team after having informed that the newly formed climate team will be led by Gina McCarthy, who served as President Barack Obama’s E.P.A. chief, will lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy to coordinate domestic efforts, and John Kerry, the former secretary of state, will be Mr. Biden’s international climate envoy.
The New York Times spoke with Jody Freeman, a Harvard University law professor who served as White House counselor for energy and climate change in the Obama administration, who said: “He faces a massive reconstruction and rebuilding operation.”
“Mr. Regan has to make it clear that science and integrity are back. He’s got a raft of rules that he’s got to rescind and replace and strengthen.”
Lastly, she added, “He’s got to do this under some time pressure.”
The E.P.A will play a fundamental role in reducing the United States’ planet-warming emissions. A goal the president-elect Biden has said the country would achieve by 2050. By 2035, Mr. Biden has also vowed to eradicate fossil fuel emissions from the power sector.
The first task Mr. Regan faces will be to eliminate the obstacles that the Trump administration put in place to make the new rules difficult to enact. Later, the E.P.A will need to continue with the efforts Obama had put in place to contain greenhouse gases.
