Biden's environment team to tackle 'existential threat'
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President-elect Joe Biden said his administration will work to modernise water, transportation and energy infrastructure.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON • President-elect Joe Biden has introduced key members of his environmental team and said his administration would make the fight against global warming a pillar of his drive to rebuild the pandemic-hit US economy.
He said on Saturday that these nominees will "lead my administration's ambitious plan to address an existential threat of our time - climate change".
"Folks, we're in a crisis," Mr Biden said at the event in Wilmington, Delaware. "Just like we need to be a unified nation to respond to Covid-19, we need a unified national response to climate change."
The nominees introduced on Saturday include Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico to be interior secretary. Overseeing America's natural resources including national parks and wildlife refuges if confirmed by the Senate, Ms Haaland would be the first Native American to hold a Cabinet position.
Mr Biden said his administration will work to modernise water, transport and energy infrastructure to make the country better equipped to resist extreme weather conditions, and create many jobs along the way.
He also said he wants to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and 1.5 million energy-efficient homes and public housing units.
He added that his administration will create a quarter of a million jobs "right away" by hiring people to plug millions of abandoned oil and gas wells that are deemed a health and safety risk.
Mr Biden repeated that he will rejoin the Paris climate accord, which President Donald Trump abandoned, and restore a slew of Obama-era environmental regulations that Mr Trump eliminated.
For other jobs, Mr Biden said he has picked Ms Gina McCarthy, Mr Obama's Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy.
He has also tapped Mr Michael Regan, North Carolina's top environmental regulator, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and Ms Brenda Mallory - an environmental attorney - to direct the Council on Environmental Quality. Mr Regan and Ms Mallory are black.
Mr Biden said that with Saturday's announcements, his Cabinet will feature six African Americans.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
