Biden picks former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as White House climate czar
Source: Washington Post
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and now leads a major advocacy group, to coordinate the new administrations domestic climate agenda from a senior perch at the White House. Three individuals familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the decision had not been publicly announced, confirmed that the final decision had been made to tap McCarthy for the post.
McCarthy is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times, successfully overturning its attempts to delay energy efficiency rules and protections for threatened species. McCarthy, 66, who spearheaded the Obama administrations efforts to curb greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles, will be responsible for implementing Bidens plan to weave climate policy throughout the federal government. Ali Zaidi, 33, New Yorks deputy secretary for energy and environment, will be her deputy.
She will be the domestic counterpart to John F. Kerry, the former secretary of state and senator whom Biden has named special presidential envoy to manage the U.S. role in global climate action. As White House climate coordinator, McCarthy will oversee a broad interagency effort to leverage the federal governments powers to cut greenhouse gas emissions. While traditional players such as EPA and the Interior and Energy departments will regulate climate pollutants directly, departments including Treasury, Transportation and Agriculture will also use policy to try to tackle climate change.
McCarthy is popular among Democrats. But she has tangled repeatedly with Republicans, and her signature effort at EPA, the Clean Power Plan, was blocked in court and later reversed by Trump officials. McCarthy joined the faculty of Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health after leaving the government in January 2017, and became president of NRDC just over a year ago.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/15/gina-mccarthy-climate-change-czar-biden/
Bayard
(22,100 posts)An environmental Dynamic Duo.
MyOwnPeace
(16,928 posts)anybody who battled BunkerBoy's destructive policies has to be great!
George II
(67,782 posts)....more and more diverse.
So far today, unless I miss any, he's named three people - two women and a gay man.
By my tally that's 22 people named - 12 women and 10 men, including his choice for Vice President.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)Talitha
(6,593 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,106 posts)particularly given the current political fiasco in Russia, although apparently the term has been used on and off for similar government positions, for almost a century.