Biden to select Buttigieg as transportation secretary
WASHINGTON — Presidentelect Joe Biden is expected to pick his former rival Pete Buttigieg as secretary of transportation, according to three people familiar with the plans.
The decision leaves the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., poised to become the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. At 38, Mr. Buttigieg would also add a youthful dynamic to an incoming administration that is so far dominated in large part by leaders with decades of Washington experience.
Mr. Biden also tapped former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary, according to four people familiar with the plans.
Ms. Granholm, 61, served as Michigan’s attorney general from 1999 to 2003 and two terms as Michigan’s first female governor,
from 2003 to 2010. She was a supporter of Mr. Biden’s presidential bid and has spoken out against President Donald Trump’s
attempts to overturn the election results, accusing him of “poisoning democracy.” As energy secretary, she will have a role in executing Mr. Biden’s $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.
Mr. Biden’s plan includes overhauling the nation’s transportation and power sectors and buildings to eliminate fossil fuel emissions by 2050. Mr. Biden says he will return the U.S. to the Paris climate accord as a first step after Mr. Trump yanked the country out of the global climate effort.
Mr. Biden also selected Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and now leads a major advocacy group, to coordinate the new administration’s domestic climate agenda from a senior perch at the White House. Ms. McCarthy is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times, successfully overturning its attempts to delay energy-efficiency rules and protections for threatened species.
Ms. McCarthy, who spearheaded the Obama administration’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles, will be responsible for implementing Mr. Biden’s plan to weave climate policy throughout the federal government. Ali Zaidi, New York’s deputy secretary for energy and environment, will be her deputy.
Mr. Buttigieg became a leading figure in national politics when he was among those who challenged Mr. Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. Initially written off as the leader of a small town competing against far more established figures, Mr. Buttigieg zeroed in on a message of generational change to finish the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses in a virtual tie with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
His campaign stumbled in appealing to Black voters who play a critical role in Democratic politics. As the primary moved into more diverse states such as South Carolina, Mr. Buttigieg faltered and quickly withdrew from the race. His backing of Mr. Biden ushered in a remarkably swift unification of the party around its ultimate nominee.
LGBTQ rights groups praised Mr. Biden’s selection of Mr. Buttigieg.
“Pete’s nomination is a new milestone in a decadeslong effort to ensure LGBTQ people are represented throughout our government — and its impact will reverberate well-beyond the department he will lead,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute.
The South Bend chapter of Black Lives Matter, however, denounced Mr. Buttigieg’s impending nomination. The group had made their displeasure of Mr. Buttigieg known during his presidential campaign, following the 2019 South Bend shooting of a Black man by a white police officer.
“We saw Black communities have their houses torn down by his administration,” BLM’s South Bend leader Jorden Giger said in a statement, referring to Mr. Buttigieg’s effort to tear down substandard housing.