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Despite President Donald Trump’s reluctance to initiate the transition process at the White House, denying even Joe Biden’s advisers access to the most crucial information, the president-elect has already begun to define his administration team to enter. charge to January 20.
Biden’s team includes half a thousand names, with a constitution – 52% are women and 46% black, Latin and Asian – that seeks to fulfill the promises of the campaign to unite an America destroyed by the previous administration. And not only that, according to the Biden team statement: “[São nomes] that demonstrate the commitment of the elected president to build a government that resembles America ”.
But some choices can be problematic, given the promises of the program that secured Biden’s election, and Cedric Richmond is one such case.
A staunch ally of Biden in the latest campaign, Richmond was chosen by the current president-elect as his advisor and also to serve as director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. The resume of this Louisiana Democrat is in the sights of criticism.
In 10 years in the US Congress, Richmond, a member of the House of Representatives, maintained a close connection with leading fossil energy exploration companies and was one of the Democrats who fought the most against limiting the fracking (technique of extracting liquid and gaseous fuels from the subsoil through hydraulic fracturing), a topic in which Biden sailed in troubled waters during the presidential campaign to finally speak in the second debate with Donald Trump, trying to strengthen his environmental agenda.
During the race for the White House, Joe Biden assured that the fight against climate change is at the top of his agenda, promising the United States to return to the Paris Agreement as soon as it takes control of the country. But the choice of Cedric Richmond for his team gives an indication against this path.
Richmond, in its alliance with the energy industry, has raised a donation of about $ 341,000 (€ 287,000) from large gas and fuel companies. According to the accounts made by the American media, it is a figure that places him as the fifth largest “beneficiary” among the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This total includes an amount of 40 thousand dollars (34 thousand euros) from ExxonMobil.
Second Politic, one of Cedric Richmond’s functions will be “connecting [da Casa Branca] with the business community and climate change activists ”.
However, in addition to the funds raised by the polluting industry, Richmond still has a fracture record with his party in the main polls on environmental issues: for example, during the climate crisis that rocked Louisiana, Richmond joined the Republicans to make overcome the increase in fossil fuel exports and promote the development of the pipeline network. I would also vote against democratic legislation to impose pollution limits fracking, as he cast his vote on legislation proposed by Republicans to limit the Obama administration’s authority to tighten the regulation of this mining technique.
A path that should create discomfort within the green cause when Richmond has already made it known that “this new role” will allow him to “give advice to the president when he wants it, and sometimes maybe when he doesn’t want it”, according to a quoted statement. on CNN after Biden’s election.
On Tuesday, recalling that Richmond has not yet committed to a new climate deal, the Sunrise Movement stated that “Cedric Richmond raised a lot of money from the fossil fuel industry and joined together as polluters poisoned his community.”
“How can youth and frontline communities trust that our voices will be considered more than the big oil companies in a Biden administration?” Asks the popular movement, with its executive director, Varshini Prakash, speaking of what “appears to be a betrayal today, one of President-elect Biden’s first hires for his new administration has received more donations from the fossil fuel industry during his congressional career than any other Democrat.”
For Prakash, Richmond’s choice “is an affront to the younger constituency, which made Biden’s election possible.”
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