Pete Buttigieg: Nominee Currently: Elaine Chao
The Trump administration issued a set of weaker carbon dioxide emissions standards for cars and SUVs and took a largely hands off approach to dealing with new technologies like automated vehicles. The fight against climate change will shape the Biden administration’s transportation policies. It is expected to stiffen emissions standards once again, and promote the adoption of electric vehicles.
A grand bargain in Congress on infrastructure spending eluded the Trump administration, and reaching a spending deal to repair road and bridges and expand access to transit is expected to be another major focus for the new administration.
NAMED
Pete Buttigieg
Former South Bend, Ind. mayor, presidential candidate
Buttigieg is a former intelligence officer for the Navy Reserve who served in Afghanistan. He was a Rhodes scholar and McKinsey and Co. consultant, and the first openly gay major party candidate to win delegates in a bid for the White House before dropping out in March and endorsing Biden. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay confirmed Cabinet member.
Source: Washington Post Reported by Ian Duncan and Michael Laris.
****************************************
Pete Buttigieg – Home | Facebook
Pete Buttigieg Alternative Media Articles (during 2020 Primaries)
2021-01-21 Pete Buttigieg defends pipeline cancellation during confirmation hearing
In the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, Cruz challenged Buttigieg to comment on Biden’s decision. Cruz said the move will cost thousands of union-paying jobs and was “altogether out of step with what the people want.”
Buttigieg countered by saying jobs will be created in the clean environment sector and the administration cannot ignore the negative environmental impact the pipeline would foster. “We can [create jobs] while recognizing the fact that when the books are written about our careers, one of the main things we will be judged on is whether we did enough to stop the destruction of life and property due to climate change. If you can I can make common cause in our support of labor then I think that’s great.”
2020-12-17 FOB (Biden, not Bill) Pete Buttigieg Gets the DOT If confirmed, to be the first openly gay man to head a Cabinet department. Biden has adopted a Friends of Biden approach to his Cabinet, basing a range of appointments on his personal rapport with nominees and on pacifying noisy constituencies, whatever those nominees’ pertinent qualifications might be.
There’s Obama West Wing civilian Denis McDonough at Veterans Affairs, foreign-policy guru Susan Rice helming theWhite House Domestic Policy Council, and House Agriculture Chair Marcia Fudge shunted off to Housing and Urban Development instead of Agriculture.
During the Clinton years, FOBs (Friends of Bill)—both longtime associates and new members of his circle—were everywhere in Washington, their entrées into the corridors of power smoothed by their proximity to the president. Biden has similarly reeled in both longtime advisers and new faces like Buttigieg’s which have obtained an almost familial level of trust.
The pick of Buttigieg for DOT is one more FOB appointment—and a problematic one. Instead of choosing someone who can hit the ground running to cleanse a department that’s become a grifter’s paradise under Trump, and grapple with a sector of the economy that’s in unprecedented free fall, Biden has tapped a man with no federal-agency experience or history of significant work with transportation.
As the Action Center on Race and the Economy, a national advocacy group working on racial justice and Wall Street accountability issues noted, “If his past positions and policies are any indication, we should expect a race blind, pro-corporate Secretary of Transportation who is cozy with big tech and big business and, at best, clueless on issues of racial equity, labor and environmentalism.
2020-12-16 Pete Buttigieg doesn’t deserve to be Transportation Secretary (right wing) Pete Buttigieg may not deserve to be transportation secretary, but the qualities that progressives hate could make him a great one.
Buttigieg will have two huge challenges to cut his teeth on. First, transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, and any plan to reduce the country’s carbon footprint runs right through the DOT. Second, Secretary Pete will have to clean up the fallout from the pandemic, which will be very, very messy for both airlines and transit agencies. On top of that, he’ll dole out tens of billions of dollars every year; supervise the nation’s airports, waterways, highways, and railroads; and manage the arrival of autonomous vehicle technology.
He seems to have a fundamental grasp of the ways America underwrites driving at the expense of both the human and natural environment, a theory he has outlined a few times, including in a CityLab interview in November 2019:
2020-12-16 Biden says Buttigieg will play key role in rebuilding country after pandemic
2020-12-15 Why does Pete Buttigieg want to be transportation secretary?
.
progressiveissuesblog 