Hill Heat

Please join the Center for American Progress for a virtual event on the future of mobility. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) will join CAP President and CEO Patrick Gaspard for a conversation about Michigan’s progress in developing pro-business, pro-worker, and pro-climate mobility initiatives. White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy will deliver remarks on President Joe Biden’s plan to reduce emissions, and a panel of experts and advocates will discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in decarbonizing transportation.

Mobility bridges the gap between economic opportunity and the environment. It creates well-paying jobs, lowers costs for families, and tackles climate change. In just three years, Michigan has created more than 21,600 well-paying auto jobs, and auto companies and suppliers have invested millions of dollars into the state as part of an industrywide pivot to vehicle electrification.

Gov. Whitmer has made unique progress in supporting mobility initiatives, through public-private partnerships with automakers to support domestic manufacturing, a bipartisan build-out of an electric vehicle charging network across the Midwest, collaborative efforts to decarbonize the economy through the Michigan Healthy Climate Plan, and partnerships with legislators from across the aisle to advance Michigan’s mobility leadership.

For more information about how state governments can leverage federal investments, as well as the opportunities and challenges of implementing the bipartisan infrastructure law, check out CAP’s recent report “How States Can Use the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law To Enhance Their Climate Action Efforts.”

Keynote remarks:

• Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Adviser

In conversation:

• Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
• Patrick Gaspard, President and CEO, Center for American Progress

Panelists:

• Cindy Estrada, Vice President, United Auto Workers
• Carolina Martinez, Climate Justice Director, Environmental Health Coalition
• Terry Travis, Managing Partner, EVNoire

Moderator:

• Sam Ricketts, Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment, Center for American Progress

You must RSVP to watch the event.

If you have questions for our panel, please submit them on Zoom during the event or via email to [email protected].

For more information, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected].

24/05/2022 at 11:00AM

The White House National Climate Task Force, formed by a recent executive order, held its first meeting today. The first tweet from National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy’s official account displayed the participants.

Additionally, the White House announced the formation of the Climate Innovation Working Group as part of the Climate Task Force. The working group, co-chaired by the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, Office of Science of Technology and Policy, and Office of Management and Budget, will focus on climate technology research, development, and deployment.

According to the White House, the working group’s priorities will be:

• zero net carbon buildings at zero net cost, including carbon-neutral construction materials;
• energy storage at one-tenth the cost of today’s alternatives;
• advanced energy system management tools to plan for and operate a grid powered by zero carbon power plants;
• very low-cost zero carbon on-road vehicles and transit systems;
• new, sustainable fuels for aircraft and ships, as well as improvements in broader aircraft and ship efficiency and transportation management;
• affordable refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps made without refrigerants that warm the planet;
• carbon-free heat and industrial processes that capture emissions for making steel, concrete, chemicals, and other important industrial products;
• carbon-free hydrogen at a lower cost than hydrogen made from polluting alternatives;
• innovative soil management, plant biologies, and agricultural techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the ground;
• direct air capture systems and retrofits to existing industrial and power plant exhausts to capture carbon dioxide and use it to make alternative products or permanently sequester it deep underground.

As part of that initiative, the Department of Energy announced that $100 million of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds will be directed to the new ARPA-Climate initiative in support of basic research for advanced climate technology.

White House participants in today’s National Climate Task Force meeting:

• Vice President Kamala Harris
• John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
• Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor
• Ali Zaidi, deputy White House National Climate Advisor
• Bruce Reed, White House Deputy Chief of Staff
• David Hayes, special assistant to the president for climate policy
• Sonia Aggarwal, Senior Advisor to the President for Climate Policy and Innovation
• Susan Rice, Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council
• Nicole Budzinski, Chief of Staff at Office of Management and Budget
• Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council
• Kei Koizumi, Chief of Staff and Acting Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; during Obama administration was Assistant Director for Federal Research and Development and Senior Advisor to the Director for the National Science and Technology Council at OSTP
• Cecilia Martinez, senior director for environmental justice, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
• Mark Chambers, senior director for building emissions, CEQ; formerly director of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sustainability office
• Maggie Thomas, Chief of Staff, Office of Domestic Climate Policy
• Jahi Wise, senior adviser for climate policy and finance in the Office of Domestic Climate Policy https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/cgcs-jahi-wise-heads-to-white-house-domestic-climate-policy-office/

Departmental participants:

• Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation
• Janet Yellen, Secretary of Treasury
• Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Tarak Shah, Chief of Staff, Department of Energy
• Katelyn Walker Mooney, Policy Advisor, Department of Labor, previously the associate general counsel for House labor committee Chairman Bobby Scott
• Jenn Jones, Chief of Staff, Housing and Urban Development
• Robert Bonnie, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Senior Advisor, Climate, Department of Agriculture

Unknown roles:

• Raj Nayak; was on Biden Department of Labor transition team, and deputy Labor chief of staff during the Obama administration
• Roque Sanchez; was on Biden DOE transition team, and a former White House climate advisor during the Obama administration

Officially, the members of the Climate Task Force are:

• National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy
• Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
• Attorney General (Merrick Garland, nominated)
• Secretary of the Interior (Deb Haaland, nominated)
• Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack, nominated)
• Secretary of Commerce (Gina Raimondo, nominated)
• Secretary of Education (Miguel Cardona, nominated)
• Secretary of Labor (Marty Walsh, nominated)
• Secretary of Health and Human Services (Xavier Becerra, nominated)
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Marcia Fudge, nominated)
• Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
• Secretary of Energy (Jennifer Granholm, nominated)
• Secretary of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas, nominated)
• Administrator of General Services (no nomination yet)
• Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (Brenda Mallory, nominated)
• Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Michael Regan, nominated)
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Neera Tanden, nominated)
• Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Eric Lander, nominated)
• Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Susan Rice
• Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan
• Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
• Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Brian Deese

The full text of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s speech introducing the draft rule for greenhouse pollution from existing power plants, June 2, 2014.

About a month ago, I took a trip to the Cleveland Clinic. I met a lot of great people, but one stood out—even if he needed to stand on a chair to do it. Parker Frey is 10 years old. He’s struggled with severe asthma all his life. His mom said despite his challenges, Parker’s a tough, active kid—and a stellar hockey player.

But sometimes, she says, the air is too dangerous for him to play outside. In the United States of America, no parent should ever have that worry.

That’s why EPA exists. Our job, directed by our laws, reaffirmed by our courts, is to protect public health and the environment. Climate change, fueled by carbon pollution, supercharges risks not just to our health, but to our communities, our economy, and our way of life. That’s why EPA is delivering on a vital piece of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

I want to thank Janet McCabe, our Acting Assistant Administrator at the Office of Air and Radiation, and the entire EPA team who worked so hard to deliver this proposal. They should be very proud of their work; I know I am.

Today, EPA is proposing a Clean Power Plan that will cut carbon pollution from our power sector, by using cleaner energy sources, and cutting energy waste.

Although we limit pollutants like mercury, sulfur, and arsenic, currently, there are no limits on carbon pollution from power plants, our nation’s largest source. For the sake of our families’ health and our kids’ future, we have a moral obligation to act on climate. When we do, we’ll turn climate risk into business opportunity, we’ll spur innovation and investment, and we’ll build a world-leading clean energy economy.

The science is clear. The risks are clear. And the high costs of climate inaction keep piling up.