Reading this article from Vox about why the incoming Biden administration should establish a Department of Climate, the only times it goes into specifics about what this proposed department should look like is when it mentions current gaps in environmental justice, as well as how the Department of Homeland Security was cribbed from agencies in various departments.
If anything, the Department of the Interior, which has been so gutted of agencies over the last century that it has been called “the Department of Everything Else” and currently only manages federal lands and Native American affairs, would be a good candidate for serving as a Department of Environment and Climate.
All it needs is:
- a reshuffling of the NOAA from the Department of Commerce (for surveying the environment)
- the US Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service from the USDA (to conserve forests and natural resources)
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from the Department of Energy (to support renewable energy, sustainable transportation and energy efficiency)
- the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from HHS (for research into the effects of the environment on human disease)
- a (re-)merger of the EPA (for environmental assessment, research, education and regulation)
- Some permanent White House Initiatives on Environmental Justice for each ethnic minority community (African Americans, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, AAPI Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans)
If all of this (plus some) could be done, the DOI could become a powerful, holistic spearhead of federal climate and environmental policy.
Also: The Patent and Trademark Office should be moved to the DOJ, and the Census Bureau should be moved to HHS.
