With 66 votes in favor and 34 against, the 45-year-old Reagan won Senate approval and will now be the first black man to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
The confirmation comes as Biden seeks to fill his cabinet, with candidates such as Rep. Deb Haaland and California Attorney General Xavier Becera awaiting Senate approval for the Presidency of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively. Hill notes.
Reagan, who was North Carolina’s largest environmental regulator in 2017, will take over the reins of an agency that has removed dozens of protection measures in that area under the Donald Trump administration.
Now the Biden administration is expected to restore many of those regulations.
It will also play an important role in efforts to move the United States towards a zero-carbon energy sector by 2035 and carbon neutrality in general by 2050.
Among his priorities at the Environmental Protection Agency, Reagan has indicated that it will include restoring science and transparency, supporting professional officials and acting “urgently” on climate change.
He also said he would do a “clean record” in regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants.
It has also pledged to take action on a class of chemicals linked to cancer known as PFAS.
Before the Senate vote, Reagan supporters praised his past work on environmental issues and criticized Trump’s decisions, which he ignored just like climate change issues.
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