Regan was confirmed by a 66-34 vote, with 16 Republicans becoming a member of all 50 Democrats in assist of him. He would be the first Black man t
Regan was confirmed by a 66-34 vote, with 16 Republicans becoming a member of all 50 Democrats in assist of him. He would be the first Black man to run the EPA, and the second African-American individual to take action after Obama’s first-term administrator Lisa Jackson.
In North Carolina, he received plaudits from environmentalists for blocking an extension of the Mountain Valley pure fuel pipeline and for securing a blockbuster cope with Duke Power to scrub up waste ponds containing coal ash from the state’s energy crops. He additionally received a significant settlement to deal with contamination of poisonous “without end” PFAS chemical compounds with producer Chemours.
As administrator of the EPA, Regan will lead an company that can play a significant regulatory function in President Joe Biden’s aggressive local weather agenda. Topping his to-do record can be crafting a brand new local weather rule for energy crops now {that a} federal courtroom struck down the Trump EPA’s model, strengthening tailpipe emissions limits for automobiles and light-weight vehicles, and lowering methane leaks from the oil and fuel sector.
The facility plant rule that is anticipated to curb carbon dioxide emissions can be a key driver in Biden’s plans to remove greenhouse gases from the nation’s electrical energy grid by 2035, and set the nation on track to realize net-zero emissions by mid-century.
The Biden administration’s nominee to be Regan’s deputy, Janet McCabe, has a deep file of crafting aggressive environmental rules, together with the Obama administration’s model of the ability plant rule, which the Supreme Courtroom blocked earlier than it might take impact. Different high Obama officers even have returned to the company to work below Regan, together with Dan Utech as chief of workers and Joe Goffman within the workplace in command of air air pollution rules.
Although Regan might discover assist from Republican lawmakers and state officers on points like PFAS cleanups and the Superfund program that offers with contaminated websites, it’s unlikely that he’ll be capable of stability Biden’s plans for aggressive local weather motion with Republicans’ opposition to guidelines they are saying threaten their states’ fossil gasoline industries.
In the meantime, Regan might want to deal with a number of administration points on the company. The EPA shed a whole bunch of specialists previously 4 years, whilst many states additionally reduce on their environmental regulators. And the Trump administration’s repeated efforts to slash the EPA’s finances, together with its deregulatory agenda and contentious science insurance policies, left morale low amongst many rank-and-file employees.
Regan has been in a position to keep away from a few of the Republican criticism directed at different Biden officers who held high jobs within the Obama administration, together with White Home local weather advisers Gina McCarthy and John Kerry, sidestepping partisan ire over previous wounds. He additionally deftly navigated the affirmation course of, avoiding taking stances on most insurance policies, promising to take heed to all sides earlier than deciding on key rules, and pledging to go to so many crimson states that Surroundings and Public Works rating member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) joked that Regan “is perhaps visiting the complete nation.”
His Republican house state senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, helped propel his nomination by introducing him at his listening to and burnishing his popularity for outreach to North Carolina’s agricultural sector.
“He’ll generally tackle initiatives that I disagree with, most certainly vote towards,” stated Tillis. “However I do imagine that he can be any person that we are able to depend on to be truthful with the fact of the change and the transition.”
However in the end, many Republicans opposed Regan on broader precept.
Capito praised Regan as “completely the kind of person who I want to see main a federal company.” However she and different Republicans voted towards him in protest of Biden’s environmental agenda and out of concern that McCarthy, serving because the White Home home local weather czar, will act as a shadow EPA chief, a cost Regan denied.
Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell acknowledged on Wednesday that Regan has loads of expertise.
“The issue is what he’s poised to do with it,” McConnell stated. “He and the administration are plainly ready to place that have behind the identical far-left insurance policies that crushed jobs and prosperity in states like Kentucky all through the Obama administration.”
McCabe, Regan’s potential deputy, made it via her affirmation listening to on March three and should quickly get a committee vote. Republicans criticized her previous work within the Obama administration, particularly her involvement in crafting that administration’s energy plant rule, elevating questions on how a lot bipartisan assist she in the end might garner.