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Biden unveils diverse team tasked with ambitious climate agenda

(Reuters, 20 Dec 2020) Michael Regan would become the first Black man to run the Environmental Protection Agency if confirmed by the Senate, and Deb Haaland, as interior secretary, would be the first Native American Cabinet member.

President-elect Joe Biden introduced his climate and energy team on Saturday, a history-making group that will seek to advance an ambitious climate agenda that reverses many Trump administration policies.

Michael Regan would become the first Black man to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if confirmed by the Senate, and U.S. Representative Deb Haaland, as interior secretary, would be the first Native American Cabinet member.

"This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former secretary of the Interior once proclaimed it his goal to, quote, 'civilize or exterminate' us," said Haaland, referring to comments made by Alexander H.H. Stuart in 1851. "I'm a living testament to the failure of that horrific ideology."

Biden, a Democrat who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, has vowed to make tackling climate change a top priority. But with a slim majority in the House of Representatives and control of the Senate still undecided, his agenda may see little success in Congress and instead rely on rules from his regulatory agencies to enact sweeping change.