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Biden Confirms Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation

Pete Buttigieg

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US President-elect Joe Biden confirmed last Tuesday the nomination of his former Democratic primary rival Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation, as American media reported that former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is the choice for Energy.

In a statement, the president-elect noted that in Transportation, opportunities and challenges such as “jobs, infrastructure, equity and climate converge, and I am confident that Buttigieg will lead this work with interest, decency and bold vision.”

Despite a promising start to the primaries, Buttigieg announced his retirement and expressed support for Biden just before the decisive Super Tuesday in March, when the current president-elect managed to rally support from moderate voters and emerged as the party’s consensus candidate.

Biden, Pete Buttigieg
(Flick)

Those primaries, however, catapulted the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from being unknown to most Americans to one of the favorites in the race after winning the caucuses in Iowa, the first state to go to the polls.

On the other hand, U.S. media reported that Biden has chosen Granholm, who was governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011, to lead the Energy portfolio.

Granholm is an advocate of electric vehicles and the development of alternative energy technologies, so her appointment is interpreted as Biden’s endorsement of the fight against the climate crisis.

The Department of Energy is in charge of maintaining the nuclear weapons program, something that Granholm has no experience in and that consumes approximately 75 percent of its budget, some $27 billion.

Pending the appointment, Biden continues to draw up his future Cabinet, which already includes Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury, and Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security.

The president-elect has also nominated Xavier Becerra for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Lloyd Austin to head the Pentagon, Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Of the remaining departments to be selected, Justice is the highest level, a position Biden’s office has said it plans to announce before Christmas.

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