The Senate voted on Wednesday 66–34 to confirm Michael Regan to head the Environmental Protection Agency, where he pledged to prioritize climate change after the Trump administration worsened the crisis.
The first black man to lead the EPA, Regan also said he will fight for environmental justice, reducing the disproportionate impact of pollution on people of color and communities living in poverty.
“This government’s priorities for environmental protection are clear,” Regan told Congress during his confirmation hearing in February. “We will restore the EPA’s science and transparency functions and support talented and dedicated career employees. We will move forward with a sense of urgency in relation to climate change. We will defend environmental justice and equity. “
All Senate Democrats voted to confirm Regan. So did 16 Republicans, including the two senators from North Carolina, Regan’s home state.
“During his time working for North Carolina, Secretary Regan demonstrated his commitment to sound environmental management and building constructive relationships with those who may have different points of view,” said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina , in a statement. “I applaud the Senate’s bipartisan support for this qualified candidate and look forward to working with him in this new role. “
Regan is inheriting an agency in disarray. The Trump administration has reversed dozens of EPA air, climate and water protections; prioritized big polluters while driving career specialists away; noted hundreds of references to climate change on the agency’s websites; and publicly punished the agency. In response, more than 800 employees left and morale among those who remained is at a record high.
Now Regan is tasked with rebuilding the agency and, at the same time, moving forward at full speed with President Joe Biden’s ambitious plans to tackle the climate crisis, which includes approving rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hold accountability polluters.
So far, the Biden administration has identified more than 100 Trump-era environmental regulations to possibly reverse, including 48 from the EPA. Biden ordered the reinstatement of dissolved scientific advisory boards by Trump officials, launched a review of scientific integrity standards across the government, and directed all agencies, including the EPA, to identify ways to reduce their own carbon footprint.
Biden created a national climate task force led by his department heads, including Regan, to coordinate a federal response to the climate crisis for the first time. He also instructed the United States to return to the Paris climate agreement as one of its first acts as president.
Regan, a former EPA student, has spent the past four years serving as secretary to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, where he helped negotiate one of the nation’s largest coal ash spill agreements and created the first Justice Advisory Council Environmental and Equity of the State. Prior to that, he was a senior climate official and Southeast Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund.
“Environmental justice is something that is dear and dear to me,” Regan told Congress. “What I intend to do, in the first place, is to find the resources and establish an environmental justice advisor for the administrator.”
Among his other initial actions, Regan has pledged to do an assessment of the damage of the past four years. But many EPA officials have warned that rebuilding the agency will be a challenge.
“Although EPA workers have great hope for the Biden government,” Gary Morton, president of the EPA union, told Congress on Wednesday, “the fact is that the EPA was wiped out after four years of uninterrupted attacks by the Trump administration. ”.