Joe Biden’s decision to name two staunch environmentalists to the top climate and energy jobs in his administration underscores not only the urgency of the president-elect’s mission to tackle global warming, but also the influence of the Democratic party’s progressive wing. Jennifer Granholm, a two-term governor of Michigan and renewables advocate has been tapped to head up the energy department, while Gina McCarthy, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, is set to take the new role of domestic climate tsar to oversee the administration’s agenda across a myriad of federal agencies.
“These are leaders who have long cared about climate change and clean energy. And we really couldn’t ask for better in both cases,” said Leah Stokes, a political-science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “The BidenHarris administration is deeply committed to climate action and with these decisions, we can just see that more and more clearly.” Mr Biden has made climate one of the top priorities of his administration, campaigning on an environmental agenda more ambitious than any US president in history. Now it is up to Ms Granholm and Ms McCarthy — alongside a yet-to-be-named EPA administrator — to deliver his pledge to decarbonize the US power sector by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The president-elect has faced criticism for some of his cabinet appointments, which have drawn heavily from the ranks of his longtime allies and senior figures in the Obama administration. But in the realm of energy and the environment, at least, Mr Biden has made picks that are viewed in a positive light by the progressive wing of the party, which has flexed its muscles in recent weeks to exclude from the running those viewed as insufficiently green or incompatible with its agenda.
Progressives had lobbied hard to remove some top contenders from contention, arguing their records did not stand up to scrutiny because of perceived compromises they had made on climate and social justice issues.