Biden to tap Granholm and Buttigieg for Cabinet posts
President- elect has reportedly picked her for Energy and him as Transportation chief.
President- elect Joe Biden is expected to pick his former rival Pete Buttigieg as secretary of Transportation and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as Energy secretary, according to four people familiar with the plans.
The decisions leave Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Ind., poised to become the f irst openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. At 38, Buttigieg would also add youth to an incoming administration that is dominated by leaders with decades of Washington experience.
Granholm, 61, served as Michigan’s attorney general and two terms as Michigan’s f irst female governor, from 2003 to 2010.
Buttigieg ’s and Granholm’s intended nominations were confirmed by four people who were familiar with one or both of the selections, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Biden’s choices publicly before he announces them.
Biden has already selected former Obama advisor Tony Blinken as secretary of State, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin as secretary of Defense and former Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary. He has also picked former Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role, and Ohio Rep. Marcia L. Fudge as Housing secretary.
Buttigieg was among those who sought the Democratic presidential nomination this year. Initially written off as the leader of a relatively small city, he zeroed in on a message of generational change to f inish the f irst- inthe- nation Iowa caucuses in a virtual tie with Sen. Bernie Sanders ( I- Vt.), the party’s 2016 runner- up.
As the primary moved into more diverse states such as South Carolina, Buttigieg faltered and quickly withdrew.
As for Granholm, as Energy secretary she would have a role in executing Biden’s promised $ 2- trillion climate plan, billed as the nation’s broadest and most ambitious effort to cut fossil fuel emissions that are dangerously warming Earth’s atmosphere.
As governor, Granholm sought to diversify the state that is home to the Detroit Three automakers by emphasizing the growing “green economy.” The state pushed incentives to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, advanced batteries and electric vehicles, and she signed a law requiring that more of Michigan’s energy come from renewable sources.
After leaving office, she moved to California to teach at UC Berkeley. She is also a political contributor on CNN.
Biden’s selection of Buttigieg for Transportation secretary drew praise from LGBTQ groups.
“Pete’s nomination is a new milestone in a decadeslong effort to ensure LGBTQ people are represented throughout our government,” said Annise Parker, president and chief executive of the LGBTQ Victory Institute.
The South Bend chapter of Black Lives Matter, however, denounced the choice. The group had criticized Buttigieg during his presidential campaign over issues including the 2019 police shooting of a Black man there.
“We saw Black communities have their houses torn down by his administration,” BLM’s South Bend leader Jorden Giger said in a statement. “We saw the machinery of his police turned against Black people.”
Buttigieg will play a central role in shaping some of Biden’s leading policy priorities. The Transportation Department helps oversee the nation’s highway system, planes, trains and mass transit, and is poised to play a key role early in the incoming administration.
Biden has pledged to spend billions on major infrastructure improvements and on retrofitting initiatives to help the U. S. battle climate change. He also wants to immediately mandate mask- wearing on airplanes and public transportation systems to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
President Trump spent years promising to push a major infrastructure bill through Congress, but it never materialized. Instead his administration moved to soften carbon emissions standards that Biden’s team will probably work to undo as part of the broader commitment to slowing global warming.
Biden reportedly also plans to tap former Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy to spearhead his ambitions for a massive, coordinated domestic campaign to slow climate change. Her counterpart in climate efforts will be former Secretary of State John F. Kerry, named by Biden as his climate envoy for national security issues.
Her selection is in line with Biden’s pattern of picking tested, familiar f igures from his time as vice president. McCarthy, 66, was EPA administrator from 2013 to 2017 during President Obama’s second term, and was assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation in his first term.
She led initiatives that cut air and water pollution and signed the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature effort to address climate change by setting the f irst national standards for reducing carbon emissions from power plants. Trump later discarded the plan.