President Barack Obama on Monday tapped MIT scientist Ernest Moniz to replace Steven Chu as the energy secretary and gave the nod to Gina McCarthy to run the Environmental Protection Agency.
Moniz heads MIT’s Energy Initiative, which conducts research on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. McCarthy is an EPA veteran who currently runs the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation. Already both nominees have garnered criticism from different sides of the climate change debate.
Conservatives have accused McCarthy of looking to sacrifice lower gas prices for lower consumptions and some in the environmental move are not happy with Moniz’s support for nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing.
Due Diligence correspondent Stephen Schaber spoke with Dr. Steven Cohen, executive director and COO at The Earth Institute at Columbia University, to discuss the nominations.
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