United States: Biden presents his environmental team

ASSOCIATED PRESS Photo/Carolyn Kaster

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WILMINGTON, Del. –President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday introduced his environmental team who he hopes will guide the United States to curb climate change and protect the country’s air and water.

“We literally have no time to waste,” he said.

Mr Biden compared the climate threat to the COVID-19 pandemic. He pledged to take action to counter it.

“My friends, we are in a crisis,” Biden said. Just as we need a unified national response to COVID-19, we need a unified national response to climate change. We must face this situation with the urgency it demands, as we would in any national emergency. ”

The approach represents a change from that deployed by Donald Trump during his four years in office. Instead, the defeated president wanted to boost oil and natural gas production while undoing government efforts to protect the environment.

The team formed by Joe Biden will try to turn the situation around. Emphasis will also be placed on protecting low-income communities, working class and minorities hardest hit by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.

He underlined the diversity of his team which he described as “brilliant, qualified, proven and go-getter”.

“There are already more people of color in our cabinet than in anyone before us,” said the former vice president, who had promised to convene a cabinet that reflects the diversity of the United States.

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If her appointment is approved by the Senate, Deb Haaland, a Member of Parliament from New Mexico, will become the first Indigenous person to lead the Home Office, which has looked after the nation’s First Nations for generations. Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, is well positioned to become the Minister of Energy.

Michael Regan, would become the first African American to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mr. Regan, North Carolina’s environmental manager since 2017, has built a reputation for prioritizing cleanups of industrial facilities and helping low-income and minority communities heavily impacted by pollution.

Biden’s candidate to oversee the Environmental Quality Council is Brenda Mallory. This body oversees the environmental reviews of virtually all major infrastructure projects and advises the president on major environmental issues. If her appointment is confirmed, she will be the first African-American to hold the position since its inception over half a century ago.

Two other members of the team presented on Saturday do not need confirmation from the Senate. They are Gina McCarthy, as national climate advisor, and Ali Zaidi, her deputy. Ms. McCarthy served as a director of the EPA from 2013 to 2017 during President Barack Obama’s second term.

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