Government

"The Senate voted Thursday to move forward with confirming Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to lead the Interior Department, bringing President Joe Biden’s historic nominee one step closer to becoming the nation’s first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history."

"The nuclear age is undergoing a paradigm shift. During much of the latter half of the past century, the nuclear enterprise was ascendant; now, it has entered a period of decline and uncertain long-term custodianship. This reversal of fortune is especially apparent in the United States’ efforts to rid itself of its unwanted reserves of plutonium."

"Rep. Katie Porter spent the last two years drawing out some of the most revealing, and damning, admissions from executives of major banks and pharmaceutical companies. She could now be poised to do the same with leaders of the oil and gas industry."

"The Senate confirmed Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, putting the North Carolina regulator in charge of restoring the climate and water pollution regulations that the Trump administration had weakened."

"It was a rare case of Presidential understatement in the unveiling of a program: the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, according to a paragraph buried in Joe Biden’s long executive order on climate change, had been directed to make plans for a Civilian Climate Corps, modelled on the Civilian Conservation Corps—the C.C.C.—of the nineteen-thirties."

"Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the Biden administration will resume an Energy Department loan program that gave billions in loans to clean-energy companies during the Obama years."

"A key Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination of New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to be interior secretary, clearing the way for a Senate vote that is likely to make her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency."

"Rep. Deb Haaland will have at least one Republican supporter when the Senate votes to confirm her nomination to lead the Interior Department: moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine."

"U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack predicted farms would provide “early wins” for the Biden administration’s efforts to counter climate change, and hinted he will draw on the department’s borrowing authority to fund initiatives to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions."

"As the Interior Department awaits its new secretary, the agency is already moving to lock in key parts of President Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions, laying the groundwork to fulfill some of the administration’s most consequential climate change promises."