Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Republicans in disarray!

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Biden Announces His Climate and Energy Teams

Biden Announces His Climate and Energy Teams

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So much passion in the speakers today!  All but one totally wowed me!

From the Washington Post:

On Thursday, Biden chose Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to serve as Interior Department secretary. If confirmed, Haaland would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary in the nation’s history.

Auto Draft 33

Also this week, Biden chose North Carolina environmental regulator Michael S. Regan to become the first Black man to head the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Obama administration veteran Brenda Mallory to serve as the first Black chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Biden also selected former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm for secretary of energy, former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy as national climate adviser and Ali Zaidi, New York’s deputy secretary for energy and environment, as deputy national climate adviser.

Deb Haaland choked up for a few moments when she first came to the podium – what a momentous time for her and for our country.

Jennifer Granholm was her usual awesome self.  Loved the woman with the Boston accent!  And they didn’t cut of Kamala’s speaking at the end.  To a one, they are all clearly excited to be part of this, and excited about the caliber of the people they get to work with.

My one complaint:  I wish these people would introduce themselves when they get to the podium.  I’m so-and-so, and I am proud to have been selected by Joe Biden to be his such-and-such!

If you want to catch the event:

Side note: Those binders full of women are really paying off!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Loved the woman with the Boston accent!

    Gina McCarthy?

    Who didn’t totally wow you?

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  I don’t know her name!  They never tell us.

    The EPA fellow.  My opinion wasn’t based on anything specific he said.  Just a shallow response from me; i know nothing about him.  He just wasn’t engaging and I finally fast-forwarded to the next person.  But I listened to everyone else all the way through.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Heh, Bill Kristol mocking Maggie H’s source sweetening. Mocking the source more than the sweetener, but I’ll take it.

    Bill Kristol@BillKristol 1h
    Man, before he goes back into private practice Cipollone wants everyone to know, or to believe, that he’s heroically defending democracy and the rule of law against the craziness.

    Maggie Haberman @maggieNYT · 6h
    Among those pushing back on the idea was Pat Cipollone, Meadows and even Giuliani. But Giuliani separately pushed DHS this week to seize control of voting machines to examine them for possible fraud. DHS said it has no authority to do tha

     

    @Buckeye: they really are just endlessly tiresome, all overlapping, interlocking jerking circles of BernieWorld

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    EPA head needs to be sciency and adroit with politics. IDK Biden’s fellow and do not know his quals. Friends at the agency interacted with McCarthy when she ran the shop; she holds a Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy from Tufts.

  7. 7.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Buckeye:

    Damn. Why do these people have to be such clowns? Can we please have some competent further left than the Dem party movements/orgs than the Sunrise Movement, please?

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    So you want to be a wedding photographer in Texas.

    The wedding photographer had already spent an hour or two inside with the unmasked wedding party when one of the bridesmaids approached her. The woman thanked her for still showing up, considering “everything that’s going on with the groom.”

    When the photographer asked what she meant by that, the bridesmaid said the groom had tested positive for the coronavirus the day before. “She was looking for me to be like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy,’ like I was going to agree with her that it was fine,” the photographer recalls. “So I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, don’t freak out. He doesn’t have symptoms. He’s fine.’ ”

    The photographer, who has asthma and three kids, left with her assistant before the night was over. Her exit was tense. The wedding planner said it was the most unprofessional thing she’d ever seen. Bridesmaids accused her of heartlessly ruining an innocent woman’s wedding day. She recalls one bridesmaid telling her, “I’m a teacher. I have fourteen students. If I’m willing to risk it, why aren’t you?” Another said everyone was going to get COVID eventually, so what was the big deal? The friend of the bride who’d spilled the beans cried about being the “worst bridesmaid ever.”

    [And]

    The photographer who got sick after shooting the COVID-positive groom said her experiences throughout the pandemic have left her a little depressed. She recalled one conversation from that wedding, before she left the reception. “I have children,” she told a bridesmaid. “What if my children die?” The bridesmaid responded, “I understand, but this is her wedding day.”

    https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texas-wedding-photographers-have-seen-some/

    Bridezilla got nothing on these folks.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    @trollhattan:

    He has a BS in environmental science and a Master’s in public administration. He has worked at the EPA and then as the head of NC’s environmental department. He has the proper credentials.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Never-trumper media critique, Part Deux

    Charlie Sykes @SykesCharlie 4h
    Why is the headline here not: TRUMP RAISES POSSIBILITY OF MILITARY COUP?

    Maggie Haberman @maggieNYT· 5h
    During the meeting, the president asked about Flynn’s suggestion of deploying the military, those briefed said. That was also shot down.

    actual headline on story Sykes wants rewritten:

    Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel

    During an appearance on the conservative Newsmax channel this week, Mr. Flynn pushed for Mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to “rerun” the election. At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea.

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    I have a feeling Joe doesn’t need to look at the binders to tell him where the qualified women are.

  13. 13.

    Kent

    Still waiting to hear who Biden’s pick for Secretary of Commerce is going to be.  That’s another agency that is going to play a major part in climate science and climate response.

  17. 17.

    Michael Cain

    @trollhattan: 
    My complaints are with Energy. Everyone’s saying, “Oh, look at her connections to the auto industry.” Everything auto falls under Transportation. Energy is nuke weapons, huge messes in the West, the national labs, bunches of research money. Not much to do with oil and gas either, as Rick Perry turned out to be smart enough to realize pretty quickly.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: Sykes, and many other people, seems to be having a problem with the way people, not just Haberman, not just reporters, are kind of giving glancing attention to the fact that trump invited the guy advocating martial law to the Oval Office.

    I get their point, even though I don’t think there’s a chance that Milley and even R governors (Kemp and Ducey) would go along with whatever dark fantasies are still, I’m sure, percolating in trump’s addled noggin.

  21. 21.

    Kent

    @Baud: Actually the DC rumor mill press seems to be pushing Mellody Hobson for Commece, who would be an interesting pick tilted totally towards business rather than the NOAA/Climate side of the Department.  She is a young black woman but as corporate as they come.  Former head of Dreamworks, current Chairwoman of the board of Starbucks, and Mrs. George Lucas:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellody_Hobson

    Why would she want the job is the question.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @Kent:

    I don’t think the Commerce Secretary interferes much with NOAA in Dem administrations.  That was one of the many norms that Trump broke.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Kent:

    Why would she want the job is the question.

    Corporate Dems aren’t my scene, but as Dems, some of them might actually believe in public service.

  24. 24.

    CaseyL

    @Kent: Not that I pay much attention to Lucas these days, but I do pay attention to the sci fi movie biz, and I didn’t realize he’d re-married, much less who he married.  Talk about low profile!  She’d be an interesting presence, for sure.

  25. 25.

    Kent

    @Baud: Oh, I agree.  Just saying, she is a billionaire with a family and lives on one of the biggest and most spectacular estates in California.  Why spend 4 years in the dusty hallways of the Commerce Department in downtown DC.

    I guess that didn’t stop any of the Trump billionaires.

    But yeah, they usually ignore NOAA.  During my nearly 20 years working for or around NOAA the only Secretary of Commerce I can remember who really engaged with promoting the NOAA mission was Ron Brown, Clinton’s first Commerce Secretary who unfortunately died in a plane crash in the Balkans.  He was a force of energy and very well liked.

  26. 26.

    mvr

    @trollhattan: 
    McCarthy has been heading up the NRDC and taking my money since I support them. They’ve been suing the administration and as far as I know, know how to do that well.

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