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With the election still in the future, it’s premature to count chickens by assuming there will be a Biden presidency, but it’s not too soon to talk about what a Biden administration might look like, because undecided voters (if there are any) might want to know.
Trump, who is contemptuous of the environment (what creature besides homo sapiens, and specifically homo sapiens Trumpis, is stupid enough to ruin its own habitat?), has gutted the Environmental Protection Agency; so if he leaves office, rebuilding that agency under a new administration will be a daunting job.
A leading and obvious choice is Carol Browner, who ran the EPA under Clinton, was Obama’s climate policy adviser, and is on Biden’s climate advisory council. “You need people who’ve done it before, who know how the thing is baseline supposed to work,” said Julian Brave NoiseCat, who works at a think tank.
But Biden could also reach into state governments for an EPA leader, e.g. Mary Nichols, who chairs the California Air Resources Board and fought Trump on vehicle emissions standards, or Maia Bellon (photo), former chief of Washington ecology department and a climate policy adviser to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has signaled she would accept if asked to serve. Bellon is a lawyer with a background in water resources management.
Inslee, who briefly ran for president in 2020 on a climate platform, also is mentioned as a possible EPA boss, although if he gives up his state governorship for a Biden appointment, it would more likely be for a cabinet position such as Secretary of Interior.
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