Climate adviser to depart White House
Gina McCarthy is planning to leave her post as the White House's national climate adviser this month, a departure coming not long after President Joe Biden signed into law a major piece of climate legislation.
The long-tenured environmental policymaker for Democratic administrations is capping a career in government nearly two years into Biden's term, during which his administration issued a slew of regulations reining in greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, air conditioners and other sources, in addition to passing nearly $370 billion in clean-energy tax incentives and other programs intended to combat climate change.
Her last day on the job will be Sept. 16. She will be succeeded by her deputy, Ali Zaidi.
"Gina is indeed leaving us," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. "She, as you know, has been a leader in what we have seen as one of the largest investments in dealing with climate change."
Her long-anticipated exit comes after she played a key role in coordinating government agencies in a united climate agenda. She has served as Biden's top domestic climate adviser while John Kerry, a former secretary of state and senator, has acted as Biden's chief climate envoy internationally.
Before joining the Biden administration, she ran the Natural Resources Defense Council and served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama.
Biden appoints clean-energy official
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden will appoint John Podesta, a veteran Washington insider who spearheaded the Obama administration's climate strategy, to oversee the federal investment of $370 billion in clean energy under the landmark new climate law.
As a senior adviser to Biden on clean energy innovation, Podesta will shape how the government disperses billions of dollars in tax credits and incentives to industries that are developing wind and solar energy, as well as to consumers who want to install solar panels, heat and cool their homes with electric heat pumps, or buy electric vehicles.
In addition to his time in the Obama administration, Podesta served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and was chair of Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. He founded the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, and is now chair of its board. From that perch, Podesta has informally been advising the Biden administration.
"His deep roots in climate and clean energy policy and his experience at senior levels of government mean we can truly hit the ground running," Biden said.
Podesta will begin work at the White House on Tuesday.
Podesta described his new job as "throwing the weight of federal government policy behind a cycle of investment and innovation that we haven't seen before in the United States, and that is almost unique in the world."
He said the opportunity "was worth coming out of retirement for."
Season's 1st hurricane forms in Atlantic
MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Danielle strengthened into a hurricane Friday morning -- the first of an unusually quiet storm season.
The storm is not currently a threat to any land.
The storm's maximum sustained winds were clocked at 75 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
The storm was centered about 885 miles west of the Azores and was drifting west at about 1 mph. The hurricane center said the storm is expected to meander in the Atlantic over the next few days.
Danielle comes amid what has been a calm hurricane season. It's the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic went from July 3 to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect.
Boat fire manslaughter charge tossed
LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles federal judge threw out an indictment Friday charging a dive boat captain with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people in a 2019 fire aboard a vessel anchored off the Southern California coast.
The ruling came on the third anniversary of one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history as the Conception went down in flames Sept. 2, 2019, near an island off the coast of Santa Barbara. All 33 passengers and a crew member, who were trapped in a bunk room below deck, died.
Captain Jerry Boylan, 68, failed to follow safety rules, federal prosecutors said. He was accused of "misconduct, negligence and inattention" by failing to train his crew, conduct fire drills and have a roving night watchman on the boat when the fire ignited.
But the indictment failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence, which U.S. District Judge George Wu said was a required element to prove the crime of seaman's manslaughter and must be listed in the indictment.