Gina McCarthy, President Biden’s climate czar, will reportedly depart from her White House role as soon as next month in the wake of Democrats’ inability to pass ambitious climate change plans due in part to opposition from centrist lawmakers within their own ranks.
While Mr. Biden and Democrats have secured marginal environmental policy wins, such as $18 billion in a recent spending bill to reduce the use of fossil fuels, frustration has built within the party over opposition from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to the administration’s original $550 billion climate change proposal.
Both Ms. McCarthy and the White House have already pushed back on reports she plans to leave.
“Reports that I have resigned from my position as President Biden’s National Climate Advisor are simply inaccurate,” Ms. McCarthy wrote in a tweet. “We’ve made great progress these past 14 months, but we have much more work to do — and I remain excited about the opportunities ahead.”
White House spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement that “the reports are not true.”
“There are no such plans underway,” he continued. “Gina and her entire team continue to be laser-focused on delivering on President Biden’s clean energy agenda.”
Reuters first reported of Ms. McCarthy’s potential impending departure.
A former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under former President Obama, Ms. McCarthy’s role to handle domestic climate change policy was the first of its kind, drawing cheers from far-left members of the party and environmental activists as a sign that Mr. Biden was serious about tackling the issue.
Ms. McCarthy would have handled the implementation of Mr. Biden’s sweeping social and climate spending bill, known as Build Back Better, across federal agencies to accelerate the country’s transition to cleaner energy.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.