US lawmakers to question Biden's EPA pick over climate agenda

US lawmakers will question President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the nation’s top environmental regulator on Wednesday. Multiple reports have confirmed the interaction will be focussed on how he will execute the administration's goal of decarbonising the country's cars and power plants.

Michael Regan would be the first Black man to lead the Environmental Protection Agency if confirmed by the Senate, and would take the reins at a time the agency has been weakened by Trump-era budget and staff cuts and bitter partisan dispute over Biden's climate agenda.

As EPA chief, Biden would rely on him as a key leader in a government-wide approach to tackle global warming after four years during which his predecessor Donald Trump used the agency to dismantle regulation to boost drillers, electric generators, miners and manufacturers.

Senators said they would grill Regan about the administration’s climate change agenda.

Biden says the shift to clean energy will be a net-positive for jobs and the economy, while reducing pollution. He has already signed a slew of climate-focussed executive orders, including suspending federal drilling lease auctions and rejoining international efforts to fight climate change, and has also promised to zero-out power sector emissions by 2035 and accelerate electric car deployment.

Regan was formerly head of North Carolina’s environmental regulator, where he earned a reputation as a bipartisan consensus builder.