Biden To Pick North Carolina Regulator Michael Regan To Lead EPA

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality

President-elect Joe Biden will name Michael Regan, North Carolina's environment secretary and a former EPA official, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a source familiar with the decision who spoke about private conversations on the basis of anonymity.

If confirmed by the Senate, Regan would be the first African American man to run the EPA. He stands to inherit an agency that has been ground zero as the Trump administration rolled back climate and pollution regulations.

Biden has promised to make climate change a top priority, which would make the head of the EPA a major player in the new administration. The agency regulates pollution released by cars and trucks, industrial facilities, oil and gas wells, and power plants, and keeps track of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause global warming.