President Joe Biden on Friday announced two individuals will take on new roles on the White House Clean Energy and Climate Team as the administration prepares to tour the country to tout the climate provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff who chaired Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, will serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation, overseeing clean energy spending from the sweeping health care and climate bill. Ali Zaidi, who currently serves as first deputy White House National Climate Advisor, will be promoted to assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor and will replace Gina McCarthy, who is set to depart the role on Sept. 16.
“I am immensely grateful for Gina’s service, and I am proud to announce the promotion of Ali to National Climate Advisor,” Biden wrote in a statement. “Gina has been an invaluable member of my senior staff since day 1 of the Administration, and I wish her the best as she moves forward.”
Podesta is a longtime political consultant who worked in the Clinton administration and the Obama administration, and served as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for president. He is the founder and currently serves as chair of the board of directors for the Center for American Progress.
“We are fortunate that John Podesta will lead our continued innovation and implementation,” Biden wrote in part. “His deep roots in climate and clean energy policy and his experience at senior levels of government mean we can truly hit the ground running to take advantage of the massive clean energy opportunity in front of us.”
The $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in mid-August, focuses primarily on programs dealing with health care, tax reform and climate change. At least $369 billion will go toward clean energy, the largest climate investment in U.S. history.
During his time as counselor to then-President Barack Obama in 2014 - 2015, Podesta was in charge of “overseeing climate change and energy policy,” per his biography for the ClimateWorks Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that focuses on helping companies cut carbon dioxide emissions in order to slow the progression of climate change.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Podesta said the new White House role was “worth coming out of retirement for,” saying the new funding is an example of the administration “throwing the weight of federal government policy behind a cycle of investment and innovation that we haven’t seen before in the United States, and that is almost unique in the world.”
“If people are going to feel this in their daily lives, it’s going to be because they’ve got a good job, they’re paying less for energy, they’re breathing cleaner air and their children have a future that is not blighted by the threat of climate change,” he told the outlet.
It will be a tall order for the 73-year-old Podesta to allocate those $369 billion, as the bill includes various tax credits, rebates, federal grants and other incentives for both consumers and manufacturers to switch towards more climate-friendly industries and products.
Around $60 million will go towards creating new clean manufacturing jobs within the United States; another $60 billion will go towards cleaning historically disadvantaged communities who have suffered the brunt of environmental pollution.
In a statement shared to social media, McCarthy said she will be "forever grateful for the opportunity to lead our country's first Climate Policy Office, stand up a whole-of-government approach on climate, & be part of securing the biggest climate legislation in history."
"I leave knowing that no one is better positioned to build on the Administration's climate progress than [Zaidi] and no one better to lead on the important implementation details of the Inflation Reduction Act than [Podesta]," she added.
Podesta has, in the past, praised McCarthy for her leadership on climate change.
“She will be viewed both domestically and internationally as someone who brought the U.S. back on climate,” he said of McCarthy, per the Times.