Biden picks deal-makers, fighters for climate, energy team

Joe Biden is picking deal-makers and fighters to lead a climate team he’ll ask to remake and clean up nation’s transportation and power-plant systems, and as fast as politically possible.

While president-elect's picks have experience to do heavy lifting required in a climate overhaul of U.S. ecomy, y also seem to be reassuring skeptics that he won’t neglect low-income, working class and mirity communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.

Progressives, energy lobbyists, environmental groups and auto workers on Wednesday welcomed Biden’s choice of popular former Mayor Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary. His expected picks of former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm for energy secretary and former Environmental Protection ncy chief Gina McCarthy as leader of domestic climate efforts also were met with general applause.

Along with yet-to-be-named heads of EPA and Interior Department, Buttigieg, Granholm and McCarthy will be part of an effort to rapidly build and develop techlogy to retool United States’ transportation and power grid systems from petroleum and coal to a greater reliance on solar, wind and or cleaner forms of energy.

Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico is considered frontrunner for Interior — and won a key endorsement Wednesday from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — but Biden has t anunced his choice. If selected, Haaland would be first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary.

Biden has pledged to make slowing impacts of climate change a top priority and has laid out an ambitious plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions to net-zero by 2050. plan includes an immediate return to global 2015 Paris Agreement on climate and a pledge to stop all climate-damaging emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035.

Among those on his climate team, Granholm as Michigan's goverr helped nudge auto workers toward accepting a switch to production of more electric vehicles. That will be one of several big ticket clean-energy efforts she and ors in administration will be pushing under Biden’s promised $2 trillion climate plan, which will face obstacles from Republicans in Congress and battles over which priorities to implement first.

“She’s a good lady,” said retired United Auto Workers local president Pat Sweeney, who remembers Granholm for helping to broker Detroit auto bailout during 2008-09 financial crisis. ”She'll do a good job."

Sweeney recalled Granholm personally telephoning him and or local union officials – more than once – to push for concessions needed to close multibillion-dollar federal bailout to keep U.S. auto plants open. “She told us she was counting on us t to let her down, after she put her neck on line for us,” Sweeney said.

Also helping drive Biden's plan will be McCarthy, who as EPA head under President Barack Obama pushed for landmark rules to cut planet-warming pollution. In her new position, which does t require Senate confirmation, McCarthy will oversee a broad interncy effort to address climate change across federal government.

McCarthy would be domestic counterpart to former Secretary of State John Kerry, who will serve as a special climate envoy.

McCarthy will be “an equal match to Kerry’s presence on international side,'' said energy lobbyist Frank Maisa. ”You have two high-profile, serious people leading climate efforts.″

A spokesman for Sunrise Movement, which has pushed for Green New Deal and or progressive policies, called McCarthy’s selection “very encouraging,″ because “she understands urgent threat of climate crisis.″

McCarthy is popular among Democrats, but has tangled repeatedly with Republicans, who accused Obama administration of punishing U.S. businesses and stifling ecomy when she led EPA.

“ real test” of Biden’s commitment will be “if role has teeth needed to be effective,″ said spokesman Garrett Blad.

Meanwhile, progressive criticism seems to have stalled momentum for California clean-air regulator Mary Nichols, once seen as near-certain choice to lead EPA. More than 70 groups signed a letter saying Nichols failed to do eugh to help low-income and Black, Hispanic and or mirity communities that disproportionately live next to polluting refineries, factories and freeways.

Nichols' “bleak track record in addressing environmental racism” makes her unfit to lead EPA, groups led by California Environmental Justice Alliance said in a letter to Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

criticism opened field to a half-dozen new contenders, include former EPA officials Michael Regan of rth Carolina and Hear McTeer Toney of Mississippi and clean-air legal expert Richard Revesz.

Nichols, asked about her environmental justice record, pointed to a new program that aims to tackle air pollution in some of state’s most polluted cities. “body thinks we’ve done everything we could or should do, but it's generally agreed that we’re decades ahead of ors in addressing se issues,” she said.

Just fact people speaking for impact on communities of color were heard was good, said Michael Mendez, a professor of environmental policy at University of California at Irvine and author of book “Climate Change from Streets.”

“I’ve never seen se discussions before” as a president-elect formed his administration, Mendez said.

climate effort laid out in Biden's plan would take a series of heavy lifts. His plan involves pouring billions of dollars into techlogical research to better store solar and wind power and clean up emissions from fossil fuel plants, build electric charging stations and or infrastructure around country, and make every aspect of life more energy efficient.

Environmental groups are hailing Granholm’s selection, saying she will bring a focus on electric cars and renewable energy that is 180 degrees from Trump administration’s emphasis on coal and or fossil fuels.

“ days of dirty fossil fuels and exorbitantly expensive nuclear reactors as nation’s primary energy are in rearview mirror,” said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group.