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Despite President Donald Trump’s reluctance to initiate the transition process in the White House, even denying Joe Biden’s advisers access to the most crucial information, the president-elect has already begun to define his team for the Administration that He will take office on January 20.
Biden’s team includes half a thousand names, with a constitution (52% female and 46% Black, Latino and Asian) that seeks to respond to campaign promises to unite an America torn apart by the previous Administration. And not only, says the statement from Biden’s team: “[São nomes] that demonstrate the president-elect’s commitment to building a government that resembles the United States.
But some options can be problematic, given the promises of the program that secured Biden’s election, and Cedric Richmond is one such case.
A faithful ally of Biden in the last campaign, Richmond was chosen by the now president-elect to be his adviser and also to serve as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. In the crosshairs of the critic is the curriculum of this Democrat from Louisiana.
In 10 years in the United States Congress, Richmond, a member of the House of Representatives, maintained a close connection with the main fossil energy exploration companies and was one of the Democrats who fought the most against the limitation of fracking (technique for the extraction of liquid and gaseous fuels from the subsoil by means of hydraulic fracturing), precisely a matter in which Biden navigated in turbulent waters during the presidential campaign to finally raise his voice in the second debate with Donald Trump, seeking to reinforce his agenda environmental.
During the race for the White House, Joe Biden assured that the fight against climate change is at the top of his agenda, promising that the United States will return to the Paris Agreement as soon as it takes control of the country. But the choice of Cedric Richmond for his team hints against this path.
Richmond, in its alliance with the energy industry, raised a sum in donations of around 341 thousand dollars (287 thousand euros) from large gas and fuel companies. According to the accounting made by the US media, it is an amount that places him as the fifth largest “beneficiary” among Democrats in the House of Representatives. This total includes an amount of 40 thousand dollars (34 thousand euros) from ExxonMobil.
According to Politician, one of the functions of Cedric Richmond will be to “connect [da Casa Branca] with the business community and climate change activists ”.
However, in addition to the funds raised from the polluting industry, Richmond still has a history of breaking with his party in major polls on environmental issues: for example, during the climate crisis that hit Louisiana, Richmond joined with Republicans in making approve the increase in fossil fuel exports and promote the development of the pipeline network. He would also vote against Democratic legislation to impose pollution limits on fracking, by casting their vote on the legislation proposed by Republicans with a view to limiting the authority of the Obama Administration to toughen regulation of this extraction technique.
A path that should cause discomfort within the green cause when Richmond already announced that “this new role” will allow him “to give advice to the president when he wants it, and sometimes when he does not want it,” according to a statement. quoted by CNN after Biden’s election.
On Tuesday, recalling that Richmond has yet to commit to a new climate deal, the Sunrise Movement stated that “Cedric Richmond raised a lot of money from the fossil fuel industry and joined in while the polluters poisoned his own. community”.
“How can youth and frontline communities trust that our voices will be heeded more than Big Oil in a Biden Administration?” Asks the popular movement, with its CEO, Varshini Prakash, on Speaking of It. that “today it seems like a betrayal, 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, the election of Richmond “is an affront to the younger electorate, which made the election of Biden possible.”
