I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, December 21st.

The racial justice and environmental movements are increasingly becoming one. The Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-style

Green New Deal is one example. President-elect Joe Biden's latest environmental nominees are another. Biden has

chosen Michael S. Regan, who headed the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality as the next EPA administrator.

Regan would be the first black man to hold that position, as well as environmental law expert

Brenda Mallory to serve as the first black chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

They were among six other would-be nominees

and appointments to Biden's environmental cabinet announced over the weekend by Biden and

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. This was on Saturday. And they underscored the diversity of

their cabinet picks. Here's Biden speaking at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday.

Already there are more people of color in our cabinet than any cabinet ever, more women than ever.

The Biden-Harris cabinet, it will be historic, the cabinet that looks like America.

So that, of course, is in general terms. And joining me now to talk about the EPA and other

agencies with environmental policy responsibilities in the Biden administration and the

extent to which environmental justice will be a priority are Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of

We Act for Environmental Justice, and Juliet Isle Perrin, Washington Post, Senior National Affairs

correspondent covering environmental and energy policy changes in the Trump administration.

Some of you may remember she was on to go down a list of

environmental deregulation points under Trump and their implications a few years ago. Biden might

try to undo some of those things that Trump did. So Peggy and Juliet, welcome back, both of you to WNYC. Hi there.

Hi, thank you. And let's start with a look at Michael S. Regan, head of the North Carolina

Department of Environmental Quality. Who of you knows him? Peggy Shepard, is this somebody you're familiar with?

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