Gina McCarthy

Washington – Gina McCarthy, once the head of Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection, has been named president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group that has sued the Trump administration’s EPA dozens of times.

McCarthy, who was tapped by President Barack Obama to head the EPA in his administration, said “climate crisis is the central challenge of our times,” and “the stakes have never been higher and the NRDC has never been stronger.”

“I take the helm determined to see that NRDC brings our country, and our world, together in the fight for a future that is healthier, more sustainable and equitable,” she said. “For 50 years, NRDC has stood up for the protection of our environment and the health of people.”

Before joining the Obama administration, McCarthy served from 2004 to 2009 as the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection  (now the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) under Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican. McCarthy said the job gave her “a great launching spot.”

She also told the CT Mirror in a 2016 interview that “environmentalism is in my blood.”

McCarthy was named head of the NRDC the day after the Trump administration announced it will begin formally withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, the first step in a year-long process to leave the landmark agreement aimed at reducing planet-warming gases.

As Obama’s EPA administrator, McCarthy finalized the Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act, seeking to reduce U.S. coal use pursuant to the Paris Agreement.

Ana has written about politics and policy in Washington, D.C.. for Gannett, Thompson Reuters and UPI. She was a special correspondent for the Miami Herald, and a regular contributor to The New York TImes, Advertising Age and several other publications. She has also worked in broadcast journalism, for CNN and several local NPR stations. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Journalism.

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2 Comments

  1. Would that be the same Gina McCarthy who, as the head of the Federal EPA, oversaw cover-ups of the toxic spill in Greensboro, GA that went on for many months and the Gold King Mine spill that went on for years? Nobody was ever held accountable for either of those major disasters.

    The GA disaster was a 19th Century cotton mill site and the Gold King Mine was in CO. You can look them both up.

  2. Would that be the same Gina McCarthy who, as the head of the Federal EPA, oversaw cover-ups of the toxic spill in Greensboro, GA that went on for many months and the Gold King Mine spill that went on for years? Nobody was ever held accountable for either of those major disasters.

    The GA disaster was a 19th Century cotton mill site and the Gold King Mine was in CO. You can look them both up.

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