A New Low-Key Climate Czar for a New Climate Policy Era

the czar. The way it usually goes, there's an issue with a lot of urgency behind it, and the president appoints one person to oversee all actions on that issue. I think the drugs are, the covids are. Of course, those with even a passing familiarity with Russian history will know that calling someone a czar really isn't, really shouldn't be a compliment. But with all that being said, we have a new climate czar in this country. His name is Ali Zad, and his official title, as of about

a month ago is White House National Climate Advisor. If you haven't heard of Zadi, you probably have heard of his predecessor in this role, former EP administrator Gina McCarthy. She now she'd be stepping down shortly after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and it's billions in funding for climate projects, and know that timing was not a coincidence.

To learn more about why McCarthy stepped down, why Zad is taking your place, and what exactly it is he'll be doing, I bring up Bloomberg Law Reporter and parts for a billion regular Stephen Lee. He said, Dad was chosen as a post legislation leader, not a pre legislation leader. And we'll get into what that means in a bit, But first I as Stephen to tell me WHO'SE. A. D actually is? Okay, So Alex A. D Is. He's one of these DC people that you sometimes meet who's

just has kind of a glittering resume. He's um. He went to Harvard and Georgetown. He has a law degree. He at a pretty young age went to work in the Obama administration. He was a pretty high ranking aid to Stephen Chew at Energy and he was also the energy guy at omb under President Obama. He is the former Chairman of Climate Policy in New York State, so

he was leading that state's efforts on clean energy. He's also a former adjunct professor at Stanford, and he's worked at a couple of white shoe law firms, and he's been at part of the White House's climate team since Biden got started. So he's done a lot, especially for a young guy. So he's a real insider, real government insider.

And I think you drew a nice contrast um in your story between him and his predecessor, Gena McCarthy, who was the head of the e p A of course, and she, you know, was very used to being out in the public going, you know, talking to the media. Um kind of mixing it up. It sounds like he's more of someone who is more comfortable behind the scenes.

Is that fair to fair characterization? Yeah, I mean I think it's fair to say that Gina McCarthy, as we all know, I mean, she had this huge personality and she was very charismatic, and you know, in the climate world, she's a superstar. Everyone knows Gena McCarthy. And what we've heard is that that was really important during the kind

of first two years of Biden. You needed to have someone who could be a really effective salesperson, you know, selling the Biden climate agenda and rallying support and getting people excited and getting voters excited, and getting folks on Capitol Hill excited, just building support for the for the sort of ideas that that we're coming out of the White House. And and now that the Infrastructure Bill and the Climate Bill have passed, we're now moving into the

implement implementation stage. And so what you want is someone who is a real technocrat, someone who has very deep experience with the technology and with the policy and with the economy. It's not that Gina McCarthy isn't also skilled in those areas, but I think people seem to feel as though Ali's ad is a guy whose skills just

match up really very well with the task at hand. Uh. I should also say that, you know, there is a part of being the White House climates are that I think is a it's a political job, it's a sort of a sales job. And and Za has been out there. I mean, he makes a lot of appearances, and he's you know, got his his own powers of persuasion. Yeah, I don't I don't want to make him seem like a you know, a shrinking violet, like he's you know, he's a pretty uh sort of dynamic, powerful guy in

his own right. Yeah, I think he's I think he's been pretty effective at making the sales pitch, and I think the White House is um that they seem to

be pretty satisfied with the job that he's doing there. Um, well, let's talk about not the job that he has done, but the job that he will be doing now as the new climates are as you mentioned, he's going to be responsible for implementing a lot of the climate provisions that were in the I R. A. Um, what are some of the traps that he could fall into and what are the states here for him? I think there's really two challenges here. One is just the sheer size

of both the Climate bill and the Infrastructure bill. I mean, the Climate bill has three billion dollars. There's billions more in the infrastructure bill. So we're talking about roads and bridges and renewable power all across the country. It's just hard to keep track of all that money. It's hard to make sure that it's all spent, you know, the way it's supposed to be spent, and and and to

make sure that every project goes smoothly. We know that there are Republican lawmakers who are going to be watching very closely, you know, looking for the next Cylindra that they can make up political hay out of right, And let's let's remind our listeners what that was. That was a solar energy company that went belly up and was very,

very controversial in the Obama administration. That's exactly right. And Democrats have made the argument that you know, when you are funding all these different projects, some of them they don't you know, pan out in the way that you expect or that they expect, and that's just part of the bargain, right, Like, not everything is going to be a home run. So so that is a challenge. So frankly,

I mean it's impossible. I would think that there's not going to be some hiccups here and there when there's this kind of money going out the door. Well, well, it seems it seems like he has he has to balance two priorities that are basically incompatible with each other. He has to get the money out quickly, but he also has to make sure that it's spent correctly. And I don't think you can totally accomplish both of those things. The getting it out quickly is the second challenge that

I think he faces. You know we we This is where we run into issues of permitting investment supply chains. You know, can you get all the materials and the workers you know, in the right place at the right time. It has to be you know, made in America and um. And then we run into this political challenge too, because he's got to get all these states to play ball, and it's not going to be easy in in in some parts of the country that fundamentally opposed the Biden agenda. Yeah,

that's a great point. Let's talk about another potential obstacle for zad Um, which is that there are a lot of other officials in the Biden administration who have a piece of this. Uh and I made some notes here. So we have John Kerry, a pretty big name, who is the Special Envoy for Climate. You also have John Podesta, who was hired around the same time as a d who is a senior clean energy advisor. He's of course been a very very large figure within the Democratic Party

for a long time. Oh and let's not forget Michael Reagan and Jennifer Granholm, UH, cabinet secretaries at the e p A and d OE respectively. You know how much authority does z d really have given that these other big names are also you know, have their have their fingers in the pipe, so to speak. Well, here's what we know. So John Kerry is the international guy. Okay,

so pretty clear division of labor there. He's the guy that goes to these u N events and that kind of thing UM Reagan and Grandholm you mentioned, uh, primarily regulators and rule writers z D. We imagine is going to be playing a sort of a coordinating role, so bringing together all of the agencies convening in our agency working groups UM and and And he also has a direct line to the President, so he's going to be influential in shaping top down policy on a whole bunch

of things like land conservation and public health and environmental justice, and of course economic growth and green jobs. So when you hear a Biden talking about that kind of stuff, there's a pretty good chance it'll either have come from or being vetted by Ali's eight. So I see him as more of a sort of top down type of person. I see. Maybe it's just that what was tripping me up is the title, you know, climates Are, which is of course not his official title. That's just an informal

you know nickname. When I think of his are, you know, I think of someone with kind of absolute authority, and it sounds like, you know, climate coordinator, climate wrangler. I guess it would be maybe a more appropriate title than climates are. You know, this is where Republican lawmakers um start to push back because they don't like the idea of czars either, and they want to know who's in charge,

who's calling the shots, who's responsible for what? You've got all these different people, um, you know, how how many different decision makers do we need to have? I mean, obviously it's a huge job that affects the entire economy, but there is definitely this sense among Republicans that there's a lot of unelected bureaucrats running around making all kinds of important decisions that affect people's lives in a very

tangable way, and who's doing what. Yeah. In fact, I'm glad you brought that up because you actually quoted Senator Shelley Moore, capital of West Virginia, you know, who's a big critic of the Biden administration's environmental policy, and she said that she said exactly what you just said, but added on she thinks this is on purpose. She thinks that the Biden administration is bringing on all of these sort of bureaucrats as a way to obvious skate what

it's actually doing. Can you talk a little bit more about that. Do you think that that is a valid criticism that Senator Capital is leveling. It's a criticism that she's been making for a long time. So I've not heard any criticism really of Ali's ad as a person. Uh, you know, he's clearly a pretty legit guy. I think everyone sees that, and he's also so new in the job and not a whole lot is known about him.

But as you say, there is definitely skepticism about, as Republicans like to say, unelected bureaucrats and this question of, you know, should these decisions be more transparent and should they you know, go through Congress. Obviously it depends on the issue that we're talking about, but they have made this argument repeatedly as a way of kind of undermining

all these actions that Biden has been undertaking. Yeah, and then finally, you know, speaking of the sort of the response from the right side of the aisle um, you also quoted somebody in your story who is a conservative, Alex Flint, who was pretty happy about this, who who was glad that uh, you know, zd was was promoted to this position. Can you talk about him and the

viewpoint that he represents. You know, I think there is a view among kind of Democrats and centrists and certainly at the White House, that we do need to build stuff quickly if we're going to reach these climate goals that the President has set out. There is definitely a need to go faster and to build stuff faster. And that's why you hear the President saying that we need

to reform the permitting process. I mean, it's interesting, it will be interesting to see how the administration, you know, handles this issue because there are there are lots of places where the desire to get stuff built quickly and the desire to protect the environment they don't really match up perfectly. And so it just seems like that's a really good that's a tough one for the White House. Yeah,

and that's where someone like Flint comes in. He's, uh leads a group that's pushing for a carbon tax or for some sort of market based solution to climate change, and it sounds like he's happy um, that z D is in there because he thinks that, you know, this would be someone who might be able to, if not get it that done, then get the government a little bit closer to that, right, Do I have that right? Yeah? And and that's also that was a big part of

the Climate Bill. A lot of that stuff is tax incentives. So let's see if we can, you know, create incentives for the private industry to do this stuff. And if we can get to that place, then maybe there doesn't need to be as much federal intervention, our federal investment. And so yeah, that's that's that's definitely something that I think the White House is hoping takes hold and and

and takes off. Alright, strange bedfellows, as they say. That was Stephen Lee, reporter with Bloomberg Laws, speaking about Ali's eighty. Thank you so much, Steven, Thanks David, and now I'll do it for today's episode of Parts Brivilion. If you want more environmental news, check us out on Twitter. We use the handle at environment just that environment. I'm at David B. Schultz if you want to talk to me about anything. Today's episode of Parts for Billion was produced

by myself, David Schultz. Parts of Really was created by Jessica Combs and Rachel Dagle and is edited by Zach Sherwood and Chuck Percutcheon. Our executive producer is Josh Block. Thanks everyone for listening. An individual's race should not be used to help him or harm him in his life's endeavors. A pair of lawsuits has made its way to the Supreme Court, and the decision could dramatically change just who gets into which college. Bloom is effectively using the Asian

community as pawns. Every lawsuit needs a villain to mask an anti black and anti Latino agenda. Does this demoralize me? No, it doesn't demoralize me. This season on Uncommon Law will explore the arguments and the people driving this latest battle over affirmative action. Can the Constitution be used to remedy society's ills. I'm the only person in class, must raise my hand and say, okay, well, actually, here's how this affects people that look like me. Does the Fourteenth Amendments

Equal Protection Clause prohibit all discrimination based on race. You let somebody in because of their race, You're keeping somebody else out because of their race. There might have been two or three Latinos, including me, and so somehow that's too much, somehow that goes too far. It's hard not

to take that very personally. Coming October, part one of a three part series on affirmative action, what's being decided is whether black and brown people are going to be excluded in significant numbers only an uncommon law from Bloomberg Industry Group