WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Michael Regan, the top environmental regulator in North Carolina, to lead the EPA during his administration, and Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., as the first Native American to head the Interior Department.
Regan’s nomination would elevate a state official who has prioritized climate change, coal-ash cleanup and environmental justice during his stint in the post. And while it while it would further narrow the Democratic majority in the House for several months, Haaland’s selection was endorsed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
New Mexico’s 1st District is considered safely Democratic, with Haaland winning reelection last month by 17 percentage points. Under state law, the Secretary of State — who might be running for the seat — must schedule a special election within 10 days of the vacancy. The election would have to be held within three months.
Two sources close to the Biden transition team confirmed the Haaland pick to CQ Roll Call. Multiple news organizations reported the Regan choice Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, and a person close to the Biden camp circulated a biography of Regan to CQ Roll Call but said they were not authorized to confirm the nomination.
Word of the selections followed a series of announced and reported Biden picks for top energy and climate positions.
Regan edged out Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board — the state’s top environmental agency — who has been a major player in domestic environmental regulations for decades.
If confirmed, Regan, 44, will take over an agency that has been a linchpin in the Trump administration’s broad push to water down or roll back entirely environmental and energy rules and standards.
So far this week, Biden announced he will nominate former Michigan governor and attorney general Jennifer Granholm to lead the Energy Department, a person close to the transition team confirmed to CQ Roll Call earlier this week. And Gina McCarthy, who was EPA administrator during the second half of the Obama administration, is widely reported to have been tapped for a new role as a domestic climate policy czar. Pete Buttigieg, who sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination before endorsing Biden, has been announced as the president-elect’s choice for Transportation secretary.
Biden is expected to nominate Brenda Mallory, an environmental lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, a division of the White House, according to published reports. CEQ is a clearinghouse for environmental law matters and oversees major public works projects like highways, bridges and pipelines through a review process.
All have spoken vigorously about the existential threats of climate change and the need to aggressively mitigate against and combat it.
A member of Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland’s role as Interior secretary could mark a turning point for an agency that has often had a fraught and at times bitter relationship with federally-recognized tribes. Coming from a major oil-and-gas producing state, Haaland would assume the helm of a massive bureaucracy that manages federal land, offshore drilling and leasing, endangered species, mining cleanup, scientific research, geological studies, national parks and grazing.
Halaand’s selection opens what promises to be a crowded contest for the Democratic nomination in the solidly blue 1st District.
When vacancies occurred in the past, each of the state’s three major parties selected nominees to run in such special elections. For the Democrats, the nominee would be chosen by state central committee members who live in the district, currently a group of 168 people.
Local political observers said they did not expect candidates to declare their intent to run until an election date is set. Potential contenders include Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who lost the Democratic Senate primary to 3rd District Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who will be sworn in as a senator in January.
Other potential contenders include state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and former U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez, both of whom ran against Halaand in the 2018 primary.
Biden had previously tapped two other House Democrats. Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond will serve as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, while Ohio Rep. Marcia L. Fudge is expected to be nominated as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. While two races remain uncalled, Democrats were already looking at a 222-211 majority before three members were to leave for the administration.
Regan’s agency, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, secured an agreement in January with the utility Duke Energy to clean up 80 million tons of coal ash — a grayish toxic slurry often stored in thinly-lined pits or ponds.
The agency called it the largest coal ash cleanup effort in state history
“North Carolina’s communities have lived with the threat of coal ash pollution for too long,” Regan said at the time. “They can now be certain that the clean-up of the last coal ash impoundments in our state will begin this year.”
Regan was also involved in crafting a state-level executive order, issued in October 2018 by Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., that set goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2025 from 2005 levels and linked climate change with public health risks, including the spread of disease, air pollution and “compromised” drinking water.
(Jessica Wehrman and Stephanie Akin contributed to this report.)
