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Yahoo Finance Presents: Gina McCarthy

President Biden's National Climate Advisor talked with Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman about the administration's early moves and issues the team will face in the years ahead from managing job losses to whether to impose a carbon tax.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

RICK NEWMAN: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Yahoo Finance Presents. I'm Rick Newman. With us today is Gina McCarthy. She's the White House national climate advisor. Gina McCarthy, thanks for joining us.

GINA MCCARTHY: It's great to be here, Rick. Thanks for having me.

RICK NEWMAN: There is a lot going on. President Biden has promised many changes on climate policy. Can you just tell us what has happened so far through executive orders and other things like that?

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GINA MCCARTHY: Oh, sure. There's a lot that's happened. Even on day one, President Biden put out an executive order that really started the rolling back of all of the bad decisions that the Trump administration put into place that really unnecessary now to be reversed because we want to protect public health and our natural resources. So that was day one. He also restored some of those monuments and made some protections up in the Arctic that are essential for us to protect special places.

He also decided at that point in time that the Keystone pipeline was not consistent with where he was heading or where the future of our country needs to head. So big deals on day one. Next week, we had another executive order, and it really established a foundation and infrastructure across the whole of government for us to tackle climate change in a way that was consistent with growing good union jobs, in a way that was consistent with protecting public health, and delivering on President Biden's environmental justice commitments.

RICK NEWMAN: There's likely to be legislation coming later this year, a big infrastructure plan with a lot of green energy components. Can you outline what President Biden is going to be asking for?

GINA MCCARTHY: Sure. It's actually part of his Build Back Better agenda. And that means that when he came into office, we had a country that was devastated by COVID-19. That's his first action, was to get us back on track with testing and vaccinations. And then we had to recognize that we have lost millions of people in the working class who no longer have a job. We have lots of families that can't put food on the table. We don't just want to address climate change. We want to get people where they need it. We want to get our country strong economically again.

So what he's planning to do is some investment strategies, the thing you do to get us out of the problems that we're in right now economically, and start building a future. And his future is built on clean energy. His future is built on recognizing where the jobs of today in the future are and how do we use that leverage to actually restore our economic growth, but also address the challenge of climate change.

So it's a wonderful moment for us when we have a president that hears climate and thinks jobs. Because that means he gets it. He understands the future we need to deliver. And that goes with tomorrow, not just the future for our kids.

RICK NEWMAN: You have said that it's your job to make sure those jobs materialize. So let me ask you about this transition. I'm sure you've thought about this. As we go-- as we move away from carbon energy toward clean energy, that kind of necessitates a loss of jobs in the carbon sector and a gain of jobs in green energy sectors. What do you do about the people whose livelihoods are affected in the carbon sector, who may not live in regions that are going to benefit where the new green energy jobs come online?

GINA MCCARTHY: Well, I mean, that has been one of the fundamental concerns that we have put on our plate since before day one. And so what this president understands is that clean energy was the fastest growing sector before COVID-19 hit. And it is going to be the fastest growing sector. Look, and that's not just because we regulated it. It's because clean energy is cheaper. Clean energy is cleaner. Clean energy delivers better benefits to some of the communities that have been marginalized and left behind.

And so it's an opportunity for growth, but it's also a recognition that there is a transition. And we have to start protecting every community and every worker so they're not left behind. We now have a transition taskforce that's starting up to make sure that we are eyes wide open, not just about how we grow jobs, but we protect the communities that otherwise would be left behind.

And there are opportunities that we've already identified. In the second executive order, the president signaled that he was going to start opening up opportunities in communities that otherwise are dependent on energy. Right now, those energy, those coal communities and others-- we're going to provide opportunities for them to actually work in the oil and gas sector to close up some of the thousands of abandoned wells that are spewing methane now. And their expertise will help in their own communities.

We are not going to think that sending somebody from their own community halfway across the country is going to be a welcome idea for their families. We want them to stay with their families, and we want them to have the same kind of economic opportunity that we see growing in the clean energy sector. Is it easy? No, but hey, there's another opportunity that the president created. It was the Civilian Climate Corps, which is not for the sort of the old guard, but it's for the new. It's basically an opportunity to put a lot of young people to work who can't find an opportunity today.

And it may even attract some of the older dudes, like me, who actually want to get out and do things once again. And so I'm excited about the opportunities we're creating right out of the gate, but also recognize that this is a long-term challenge. And we have to support that, which is what this task force is all about.

RICK NEWMAN: Just so everybody's clear, I didn't call you an older dude. You called yourself an older dude.

GINA MCCARTHY: Well, I saw you looking at me. I got it.

RICK NEWMAN: So can you-- is there a way to do this in real time so you can anticipate where job losses in carbon energy are likely to happen or are actually happening, and get there and say, we got an opportunity for you. Do not despair.

GINA MCCARTHY: Yeah, I think that's why we wanted out of the gate to identify some real life opportunities. But you're right. We don't want to wait till after the jobs are gone. We want to anticipate where the shift in energy is and how we get ahead of that. Because it's really important now-- look, this isn't the time to ask any human being to sacrifice. We have all sacrificed loved ones. We've all sacrificed our jobs, our opportunity to feel secure and feeding our families.

This president gets it. He gets that we have to keep people working while we recognize that we need a shift that addresses, really, two things. One is that clean energy really is the future, that climate change is real. We have to pay attention to science. We've certainly learned the dangers of not paying attention to science over the past few years.

But even more importantly, we have to recognize that there are opportunities we can have available to us today to actually address those that are hardest hit by COVID, those that are hardest hit by pollution, and those that are in the crosshairs of climate change, which is the Black, Brown indigenous communities that don't have the wherewithal to defend themselves, that come in to these communities needing assistance.

And we have to address that issue. And the only way we're going to do that is to recognize that climate change is real, to recognize that we have opportunities. And this president has committed 40% of his investments in clean energy to be targeted to those very communities that have been left behind.

RICK NEWMAN: A couple of real world test cases here. So, the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the ban on new permits on drilling on federal lands. There has already been some criticism that that has killed some jobs. I don't think there were a lot of jobs associated with XL-- the pipeline right now. But there were maybe a few thousand construction jobs in the future. Is the administration doing anything to say, OK, we want to go give those people who might have worked on that project another project to work on?

GINA MCCARTHY: Sure, there's many opportunities for growth. But let me clear up a couple of things. One is President Biden's stance on Keystone is not new. It was not a signal sender on everything oil and gas. We are not in a fight against oil and gas. We are in a fight for our future. We are in a fight to support clean energy. So there is a transition that must happen. But Keystone was something that President Biden said that he disagreed with years ago. He said it during the campaign. It should have been a surprise to no one.

But Rick, let me clarify a little on the oil and gas permitting. We actually didn't stop oil and gas permitting. What we said was that there is a lot of leased public lands that are not being used today, that have been leased out for exploration for oil and gas extraction. And nothing is happening. We're talking about land the size of Iowa that is sitting, not being able to be utilized for other things and not being utilized at all.

So what we wanted to do was simply take a pause on new leasing on public lands so we could take a little bit of time to step back and say, hey, these public lands are yours and mine. These public lands have more value than oil and gas exploration. They are the natural resources that we need to protect. They are our opportunity to restore biodiversity that might have been lost. We should just step back and think a little bit and have a real plan moving forward.

But it doesn't mean that this stoppage in oil and gas exploration or permitting where leases are already active and in use. So this was a pause and review. It was not a stoppage. Because we know that this is a longer term transition, not an opportunity right now to stop things if we haven't basically gotten our act together now and start planning for the future. That's all this was.

RICK NEWMAN: There are two other pipelines. President Biden could intervene on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Line 3 Pipeline, both in the upper Midwest. Should we expect any action on those?

GINA MCCARTHY: Well, there will be action on those because they are basically in court right now. And so, with the Dakota Access Pipeline, this is an issue that's been going on for years. There's a lot of anxiety about these issues, mostly from a tribal perspective and from a perspective of protecting vital drinking water for the tribes. I'm actually meeting with some of those tribal leaders today.

But the issue is that the courts have basically said that this is up to the Army Corps to decide how to act. But that permit was not done legally because they didn't do the environmental review that was required. So the easement across Army Corps lands has been vacated, and the Army Corps needs to resolve this issue moving forward. So we'll be listening to the tribe's government to government. We are nation to nation in discussions with them. But it is clearly going to be an Army Corps decision, not a White House political decision that carries the day with this.

RICK NEWMAN: Last thing, will President Biden ever propose a carbon tax?

GINA MCCARTHY: Will he ever propose? You know, I hate to predict the future. So maybe I shouldn't try to do that. I think there are many ways in which we could put a price on carbon, and many of them are being considered, both on the Hill and by lots of folks writing in to us. We know that the price of continuing to use fossil fuels is higher than the price we pay for fossil fuels. We get that. And there's many ways in which we can resolve it.

We are right now looking at developing standards. We've already sent signals on methane. We think a lot more can be done and must be done to address methane, which is a super polluter. And we're going to move forward with regulatory authorities and executive actions that we can take. We're already in the conversations with the automakers because we know there's opportunities for us to actually make the shift to clean cars. And we want to lead in that manufacturing again, not just purchasing and delivering them for the American public.

So there's all kinds of opportunities and tools that we can bring to the table. But right now, we're focused on standards. And we're focused on investing and building back better. And we think those two things, in addition to what we've already done and what we have in our pocket to be able to do through executive authority, are the ways to go in the immediate future.

RICK NEWMAN: Gina McCarthy, there's so much more we can talk about, but we're going to have to leave it there for today. So we hope you'll come back another time. Thank you so much.

GINA MCCARTHY: Rick, I'd love to. Thanks so much.