NC’s Regan, top EPA pick, promises environmental policy that serves ‘every person’
From a young age, Michael Regan took advantage of Eastern North Carolina’s woods and waters, hunting and fishing with his father and grandfather.
But the Goldsboro native — “a proud son of North Carolina,” as President-elect Joe Biden introduced him to the nation Saturday — also battled asthma during his youth, with exposure to pollutants and allergens forcing him to use an inhaler.
It created a curiosity, he said, in the connection between environment and health, one that has been at the heart of his career first at the Environmental Protection Agency and, for the last four years, as North Carolina’s top environmental official.
Saturday, Biden formally introduced him as his pick to lead the EPA, putting the 44-year-old Regan in line to be the first Black man to lead the agency which was created in the 1970s.
He promised to lead the EPA with an eye toward how environmental impacts affect everyone in the nation, especially those who often deal with the worst aspects.
“We will be driven by our convictions that every person in our great country has the right to clean air, clean water and a healthier life, no matter how much money they have in their pockets, the color of their skin or the community that they live in,” Regan said during public remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday.
Biden hailed his climate team, which included nominees to lead the departments of Interior and Energy, a a “barrier-busting” group that is “committed to facing climate change by delivering environmental justice” for “low-income white, Black, brown and Native American communities who too often don’t have the clean air and clean water.”
It was Regan’s work on environmental justice as secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality that helped elevate his candidacy, particularly over expected frontrunner Mary Nichols of California. Regan created a 17-member Environmental Justice and Equity Board during his four-year tenure in North Carolina, which included language around climate justice in the state’s Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan.
Both Biden and Regan referenced “fence line” communities — that is, people who live on the other side of the fence from industry — in their speeches on Saturday.
“(Biden) made it clear that we would no longer just deal with the issues up to the fence lines of these facilities, but that we would actually see the people on the other side of those fence lines,” Regan said. “He’s already backed up that commitment by assembling a team that reflects America.”
Regan, like Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, is a graduate of an historically black university — something he noted in his speech. Regan earned a degree in earth and environmental science at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. He also earned a master’s at George Washington University.
Regan’s rise from North Carolina’s top environmental official to a premier spot in the Biden administration came faster than even he expected, said Harold L. Martin, chancellor of North Carolina A&T and a friend.
The pair had conversations about the next step for Regan, who worked at the Environmental Defense Fund after nearly a decade at the EPA and before joining North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration in early 2017, that imagined high-profile roles in Washington. But, perhaps, not this one, this fast.
“I don’t think he expected increased visibility in Washington to occur this soon, by any measure,” said Martin, who received a frenzied text that included a “Go Aggies” from the nominee this week after news broke of his selection.
Regan came recommended from Cooper, a Democrat who won reelection in 2020.
“When the governor told me how wonderful he was, I don’t think he expected I was going to try to steal him,” Biden said.
In North Carolina, Regan dealt with a slew of environmental issues, mirroring many that will be on his agenda if confirmed as EPA administrator. The long list includes coal ash cleanup, climate resilience, sea level rise, animal waste, chemical toxins in water, mudslides and more.
His chief accomplishment in North Carolina was an historic settlement with Duke Energy to clean up nearly 80 million tons of coal ash. NC DEQ also fined Chemours $13 million for allowing the chemical GenX into the Cape Fear River.
“He had a good run here,” said Republican Chuck McGrady, the former president of the Sierra Club and a former state lawmaker in the General Assembly. “There were probably low expectations as to whether he cold be successful given the politics and where the General Assembly was on most things environmental protection. I’m glad he will be moving to this position. I hate to lose him here in North Carolina.”
EPA administrator is a Senate-confirmed position, meaning Regan will have to secure at least 50 votes in a divided U.S. Senate before he can take office.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis “looks forward to learning more about Secretary Regan’s ideas and his plans for the EPA,” Tillis spokesman Daniel Keylin said in a statement. “Senator Tillis expects the EPA to balance the promotion of clean energy with the unique needs of America’s farmers and small businesses, and not return to the Obama administration’s crushing regulation-first approach that burdened too many hardworking North Carolinians.”
Some environmental advocates were critical of how far Regan was able to go on some issues, including hog waste farms in Eastern North Carolina and wood pellet burning in the western part of the state.
“Secretary Regan is used to being criticized by both the environmental community and the regulated community,” said Bill Holman, North Carolina state director for The Conservation Fund. “He’s got a thick hide. He’s well prepared for the role.”
McGrady sponsored legislation around coal ash regulation in the state. He said Regan’s willingness to listen to multiple sides on an issue and work to make progress was impressive.
“He’s principled about environmental protection. There’s no apologies for that. That’s what his work has been for a lifetime,” McGrady said. “But he’s pragmatic. He understands that sometimes you don’t get everything you want immediately. You can move incrementally to resolve issues and sometimes it’s a two-step or three-step approach that’s more likely to get you where you want to be rather than waiting around to get everything you want in one fell swoop.”
In the summer of 2019, the pair did a trip with Muddy Sneakers, an organization co-founded by McGrady that takes students into nature to study science. In one photo circulated after Regan’s selection, he is in a stream with a child, a snapshot that McGrady said was indicative of Regan’s approach on the trip.
It included a tour of the Sierra Nevada brewery in Henderson County, where Regan engaged about its clean water system, a sign of his “intellectual curiosity,” McGrady said.
“There’s an enthusiasm there,” McGrady said. “It’s really quite genuine the way he flashes the smile and engages and environmental regulators aren’t usually good at that.”
Family tragedy
Biden said Regan “shares my belief in forming consensus and finding common purpose.”
The president-elect and his pick for EPA chief also share an experience with family tragedy. Like Biden, whose first wife and young daughter died in a car accident 48 years ago, Regan lost a son at an early age.
His son Michael (MJ) Stanley Regan Jr. was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer, at two months. He died on Aug. 16, 2012, months after his first birthday.
“MJ’s short time here has forever changed the lives of many. He has taught us the true meaning of love, patience, perseverance, and strength,” the family wrote in his obituary.
Regan and wife Melvina have another son, Matthew, born in 2013.
“He has very strong family values, personal values,” Martin said. “He’s honest and has great integrity. When he says he’s going to do something he does it. He treats people with a high level of regard and respect. It’s just who he is.”
On Saturday, he promised to carry on his work at the agency with a sense of purpose.
“We will move with a sense of urgency,” he said, “on climate change, protecting our drinking water and enact an environmental justice framework that empowers people in all communities.”
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This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 4:58 PM.
