Just as the United States needs a unified national response to COVID-19, it needs another one to tackle climate change, President-elect Joe Biden said Saturday when he introduced the top members of his environmental team.
“We literally have no time to waste,” Biden told the media at the presentation of his nominees.
The approach marks a change from Donald Trump’s presidency, characterized by efforts to increase oil and gas production while reducing the government’s measures to protect the environment. The next Biden team will try to undo or block many of the current government’s initiatives. Emphasis will also be placed on serving the working class and minority communities, both low-income groups, most affected by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.
In his comments, Biden highlighted the diversity of his new team, which he described as “brilliant, qualified, proven and barrier-free”.
“There are more non-white people in our cabinet than ever before, more women than ever,” said the former vice president, who pledged to assemble a group of leaders for the various departments that reflect the diversity of the United States.
The nominees Biden presented Saturday have compelling personal stories that they themselves said will direct their efforts if ratified in the Senate.
New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland will be the first Indian to lead the Department of the Interior, which has influenced the tribes of the nation for generations. Haaland said his life was not easy. A sign that he was homeless and was dependent on food stamps at one point in his life.
“This moment is profound when we consider that a former Home Secretary once proclaimed that his goal was ‘to civilize or exterminate us,'” said Haaland. “I am living proof of the failure of that horrible ideology. “
Haaland referred to Alexander HH Stuard, who made that statement in 1851.
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Jennifer Granholm, two-term governor in Michigan, was nominated as Secretary of Energy. Granholm said she came to the United States at the age of four, brought from Canada by a family “looking for an opportunity.” She said her father had found a job as a bank clerk and retired as the head of the bank.
Michael Regan, for his part, will be the first African American to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, for the acronym in English). Regan, North Carolina’s chief of environment since 2017, has become known for running industrial cleanup programs for toxins and helping minorities and low-income communities significantly affected by pollution.
Biden appointed Brenda Mallory a member of the Environmental Quality Council.
Two other members of the environmental team introduced on Saturday do not need Senate ratification. Those are Gina McCarty, the next national climate advisor, and Ali Zaidi, who will be his deputy. McCarty served as EPA administrator from 2013 to 2019 during President Barack Obama’s second term.