Regan, who will be the first black man to lead the EPA, tells Rolling Stone that rebuilding the agency is his first priority. “We have world-renowned experts at EPA,” he says. “We should listen to them and we will.”
With the Biden administration promising to use all executive powers to tackle climate change, a revitalized EPA will be at the center of its ambitious emissions reduction targets. “I’ll focus on the laser on how we limit methane emissions,” says Regan about the potent greenhouse gas released in natural gas operations.
He lists environmental justice and water quality as other priorities, but guiding his focus on all of these ambitions is to believe that what is good for the planet can also be good for workers and businesses, a conviction which Biden shares. “All of these priorities that I just raised will be good for people, the planet, and the benefits,” Regan says.
His personal philosophy is to “try to get to know people where they are, understand the challenges of each one, be it an individual or a company, and then think,“ How do you come up with the solution in a way that can work? “”