Just as the United States has needed a unified national response against COVID-19, it needs another to tackle climate change, President-elect Joe Biden said Saturday in introducing key members of his environmental team.
“We literally don’t have time to waste,” Biden told the media during his nominees ’presentation.
The approach marks a shift from Donald Trump’s presidency, characterized by efforts to increase oil and gas production while reducing government actions to safeguard the environment. Biden’s next team will try to undo or block many of the current government’s initiatives. Emphasis will also be placed on caring for the working class and minority communities, the two low-income groups, which have been the hardest hit by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.
In his statements, Biden highlighted the diversity of his new team, which he described as “brilliant, qualified, proven and a barrier breaker”.
“There are already more non-white people in our cabinet than in any other before, more women than ever,” said the former vice president, who has pledged to bring together a group of leaders for the various departments that reflect the diversity of ‘United States.
The nominees Biden presented Saturday have compelling personal stories that they themselves said will guide their work if ratified in the Senate.
Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico will be the first Native American to head the Department of the Interior, which for generations has exerted influence on the nation’s tribes. Haaland said his life has not been easy. Sign to have known the lack of housing and dependence on food stamps at some stage in his life.
“This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former Secretary of the Interior once proclaimed that his goal was to‘ civilize ’or exterminate us,” Haaland declared. “I am living proof of the failure of this horrible ideology.”
Haaland referred to Alexander HH Stuard, who made this statement in 1851.
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Jennifer Granholm, who was governor for two terms in Michigan, was nominated as Secretary of Energy. Granholm reported that he arrived in the United States at the age of four brought from Canada by a family that was “looking for an opportunity.” He said his father found a job as a cashier at a bank and retired as a bank manager.
For his part, Michael Regan will be the first African-American to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Regan, North Carolina’s environmental owner since 2017, has gained notoriety for undertaking industrial toxic substance cleanup programs and helping minority and low-income communities affected by pollution to a considerable extent.
Biden appointed Brenda Mallory head of the Environmental Quality Council.
Two members of the environmental team presented Saturday do not need Senate ratification. They are Gina McCarty, the next national climate adviser, and Ali Zaidi, who will be their deputy. McCarty served as EPA administrator from 2013 to 2019, during the second term of President Barack Obama.