Brenda Mallory to Lead Council on Environmental Quality – Big Win for Frontline Workers

Washington, D.C. – Today, Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power 2020, issued the following statement after the Senate voted 53-45 to confirm Brenda Mallory to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality:

“Brenda Mallory’s confirmation as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality is a big win for frontline communities and workers. As our country faces the urgent need to rebuild and modernize our infrastructure, Mallory will also ensure that every community benefits from the millions of new good-paying, union jobs and other opportunities created by transformational investments in clean energy and infrastructure. She will also work to right past environmental wrongs and ensure that new projects and updates to our infrastructure do not poison the air and water in frontline communities, especially the Black and Brown communities that have borne the brunt of environmental racism and injustice for decades.

“After the first reduction in public lands protected during a president’s term in U.S. history, Mallory brings her deep expertise in public lands, natural resources, and water issues to this vital role. The American Jobs Plan will mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers through a new Civilian Climate Corps to work on protecting our public lands and waters, and she is the perfect person to help oversee this work and the plan’s other transformational investments in clean energy and infrastructure.”

Background on Brenda Mallory

During the Obama administration, Mallory served as the general counsel to the environmental quality council. Most recently, she headed regulatory policy development and implementation as the Director of Regulatory Policy at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). Prior to joining SELC, Mallory fought to protect public lands as the Executive Director and Senior Counsel for the Conservation Litigation Project.

Mallory has more than three decades of experience in environmental and natural resources law and policy, making her well-suited to overturn Trump’s rampant environmental deregulation and ensure clean air and water for all.

The time to act is now. Learn more: climatepower2020.org