Biden Picks Top North Carolina Environmental Official to Run EPA
by Brady Dennis, Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post) President-elect Joe Biden will choose to nominate Michael S. Regan, who heads the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, as the next Environmental Protection Agency administrator, according to two individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it has not yet been formally announced.
He would play a central role in realizing Biden’s promises to combat climate change, embrace green energy and address environmental racism. As administrator of the EPA, he would be responsible for crafting fuel-efficiency standards for the nation’s cars and trucks, overseeing emissions from power plants and oil and gas facilities, and cleaning up the country’s most polluted sites.
…
Regan has served as North Carolina’s top environmental official since early 2017, when Gov. Roy Cooper (D) named him to his role.
…
“Regan realizes that America’s environmental laws and policies must, first and foremost, protect the most vulnerable,” the individual said. “Growing up with asthma in eastern North Carolina, Regan saw toxic pollution, agricultural waste and environmental destruction being concentrated near communities of color and low-income communities.”
…
In hiring Regan, Biden passed over environmental regulators and experts with decades more experience, including California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols and Richard Revesz, who heads the New York University School of Law Institute for Policy Integrity. Many Democrats had lobbied for a veteran regulator who could swiftly unwind the Trump administration’s rollbacks. The AFL-CIO union federation told the Biden transition team it preferred Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation.
Before that, he served at the EPA under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, working on air quality and energy issues. Before leaving the agency in 2008, Regan served as a national program manager responsible for designing initiatives aimed at reducing pollution and market-based solutions to improve energy efficiency, air quality and climate-related challenges.
In 2016, he founded a consulting firm, M. Regan & Associates, aimed at helping “organizations find transformational solutions to complex energy, environmental and economic challenges.” READ MORE
Biden to tap North Carolina environmental regulator Regan to head EPA (Politico)
