The Daily Show: Ears Edition - EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan - Clean Energy and Protecting Communities

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Michael S. Regan chats about clean energy and explains why he is leading the Environmental Protection Agency through the lens of environmental justice: “Systemic racism is by design, and the environment is no different than policing or incarceration or housing.”  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Administrator Regan. Welcome to the Daily Show. Thank you. Glad to be here. I'm glad to have you here, you know, because, I mean, this is the environment. We're all in the environment, and you are now tasked with, I mean, essentially making sure that we can breathe, we can drink water and we can live.

I feel like your life sort of set you up for this because if my research is correct, you grew up with a type of asthma? Yeah, a type of a respiratory illness where any time there was an ozone action day or a lot of pollution I'd struggle and that was really a setback for me because I grew up hunting and fishing with my father and grandfather. So being outdoors meant everything to me because it was a cultural experience learning from them and being with them and any moment that I missed being with them I was in the house because I was on that inhaler or worried about some pollution. Right right I feel like that's an origin story that's what it is. Yeah well It's like the pollution affected your ability to have fun with your family and you're like,

I'm gonna get you pollution. And look at you now, administrator of the EPA. Unfortunately, we learn every day about communities around America where they don't have water that is not polluted by industries that are up the road or up the stream because of the color of their skin. Nobody cares. I mean, you read the history of America. Every single time people plan where to put a factory or how the factory will affect the neighborhood. It's never in a rich neighborhood. It's never in a nice neighborhood.

It's always in a place where the people there have the least access to power to oppose that. How does the EPA step in, how do how do the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their thoge. thoge. thoge. thee. thee. thee. the, how do do do do their the, how do do do you will thogeauauau. the, the, the, the, the, how do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their thathea, thathea, thathea, thathea, thathea, thathea, thatroanaugh., thateatraqaqaqaqa., taqaaaaaaaaaaa is. And everything I do at EPA is through the lens of environmental justice. Contracting, procurement, air quality, water quality, land management starts with, are we protecting the least amongst us, those who have lacked political representation and those who have not been at the table for decades. And to your point, systemic racism is by design and the environment is no different than policing or, you know, incarceration or housing. And so this administration has an all of the above, all of government approach.

So as I think about lead and the eradication of lead in this country, I'm partnering with the Secretary of Housing who is thinking about lead paint while I'm thinking about water. This is about making sure that we protect all people and I'm excited to be on this team. I'll be honest with you. Here's the dilemma though. You have a wonderful outlook. You want to do things. The counter is always money.

Money and the interests of money. So you say, I want to protect this land. I want to protect this stream. Money says, oh, we want to turn that into like an oil pipeline, or we want to do something with this land where we're going to destroy the vegetation, but create jobs and money. How do you manage that as the head of the EPA? Knowing full well that the people with money are going to put pressure on your bosses

to say like, no, no, no, no, too much environment, we need money. Oh yeah, money is absolutely both a blessing and a curse. And here's the reality. We are convinced that you have to choose between jobs, economic prosperity and development and protecting people on the planet and you don't. It requires all levels of government working with communities to determine what's best and how to do it. And the things circling back to environmental justice, you don't have to put every refinery and every pipeline in every black and brown neighborhood

or cutting across every tribal community or reservation. There are ways to think about how we do economic development and create jobs in a way that don't overly burdened certain communities... to communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to communities communities, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to thei communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities communities, to to the communities, the the the the community the their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, their communities, to to to to to to their communities There are ways to think about how we do economic development and create jobs in a way that don't overly burden certain communities. And by the way, when we think about climate change and clean energy, thinne tooge, this is about taking advantage of the future. Our economy and society is evolving. Clean energy, clean opportunities,

create opportunities for jobs and economic development. So it makes this country more globally competitive if we get the jump on countries like China, India and others to deploy these practices at home. And by the way, deploy them at home and if we start with the most polluted areas, we will be starting with the people who are the least amongst us and can handle these disproportionate pollution impacts. So start there, protect those people, create jobs in those communities, move forward to a clean energy economy and continue to be globally dominant.

That's the way we should be thinking about this. Many people like the idea of clean energy. Changing to the clean energy seems like that's going to be the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, they.e.I's, their, their, their, their, their, somea, their, their, their, their, the idea of clean energy. Changing to the clean energy seems like that's going to be the biggest hurdle of all, you know. I love clean energy, but I also know that we won't be able to wean ourselves off of coal tomorrow. We won't be able to not stop using oil tomorrow, not just because of our need,

but also because of the energy, the people who work in those industries. What do you think a realistic outlook is, you want to keep moving forward, but you don't want to be in a place where all of a sudden you cut off your nose to spike your face. So how do you find that balance of progress whilst also not alienating what we do today? I mean, this is why I have conversations with the secretary of the Department of Defense,

labor, their energy. It th, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, it takes, take, take, ta, ta, ta, ta, tha, and to to to thi, and their, and their, and the, the, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, is, and, is, and, is.... th, is. th, is. t, is. t, is. t, is. ta, is. ta, is. ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. to thea. to, to, the to, the the to, the to, the the to, the the the the to the the the the to, too. takes planning across government. The reality is, is at one point in time, people like their rotary phones. And then all of a sudden, we had iPhones. If we create platforms, technology will move to those platforms and drive society forward. If we can have an electric grid that's just as smart as the web and we can put clean energy apps on this platform.

Well, that's interesting. Then you get society moving forward. thoe thoe thoe on this platform. Well, that's interesting. Then you get society moving forward. And by the way, so anyway, if I started interrupting, you're almost saying we're still in like the dumb energy phase of how we use electricity and how we, absolutely. How we rooted around the town or around a city or country.

Absolutely. And if we want to take advantage of society moving forward, we all know we have to master technologies and we have to do it before other countries do it. So again, this is just as much about national security as it is about saving the planet and creating jobs. The question is, do we not take these opportunities because of political rhetoric? Why should we not move forward and create new jobs and participate in global competitiveness and let technologies make life for us smarter and easier because we want to hold on to the past. That's where moneyed interests really do hamstring Americans

moving forward and hamstrings national security. We should not be tied to the old way just because a lot of people with influence are making money through the old mechanisms. Well, you know what? Your enthusiasm is infectious. I don't know if you can ever remove politics from anything in America, but good luck and try. Thank you so much for joining me on the show.

Thank you. Wonderful having you here. Watch the Daily Show, weeknights at 10 Central on Comedy Central. and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.