WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Regan, who has led the Environmental Protection Agency throughout President Joe Biden's four-year term, said Friday he will leave the agency Dec. 31, about three weeks before Biden' leaves office.
In a letter to agency employees, Regan said he was proud of the EPA's work to confront climate change, restrict air and water pollution and spend tens of billions of dollars under the administration's landmark climate law to spur clean energy development.
Those efforts slashed harmful greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants that endanger communities, “delivering significant economic and public health benefits in areas long overburdened by pollution,″ he said. The agency also created thousands of jobs and lowered costs for families, he said.
Regan, the first Black man to head the EPA, noted that the agency elevated the role of environmental justice under his watch and “placed it at the center of our decision-making.'' Regan went on a “Journey to Justice” tour from Mississippi to Texas in 2021. The five-day trip from Jackson, Miss., to New Orleans and Houston highlighted low-income, mostly minority communities adversely affected by decades of industrial pollution.
Regan, 48, a North Carolina native who headed the state Department of Environmental Quality before taking over at EPA in early 2021, said he will return to the state with his family.
Jane Nishida, EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs, will serve as acting administrator for the final weeks of the term, Regan said. Regan's chief of staff, Dan Utech, will serve as acting deputy administrator.
Regan, who worked at EPA earlier in his career, thanked Biden for naming him to the post, adding: “Ten years ago, I could have never imagined coming back to lead EPA alongside such committed and dedicated staff."
In the past four years, the agency has “made huge strides to remove lead pipes from communities and protect drinking water sources for millions of people in America,'' Regan wrote. “We have acted on forever chemicals like PFAS to protect families from pollution in the products we use, the water we drink, and in the backyards where our children play.''
EPA also “reinvigorated enforcement efforts'' after four years of environmental rollbacks under former President Donald Trump, “holding polluters accountable and making sure they pay for cleanups of legacy pollution sites across the country," Regan said.
EPA has banned dangerous chemicals such as asbestos and trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, and responded to environmental and public health emergencies across the country, including in Asheville, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida, in just the last year, Regan said.
The agency also hired thousands of new employees, including hundreds of scientists who left the agency during the first Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump, who has named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to be EPA administrator, has said he will again slash environmental regulations when he returns to office for a second term next month. Trump also has said he will target what he calls onerous rules on power plants, factories and oil and natural gas production imposed under Biden.
While not mentioning Trump or Zeldin, Regan told staff that “the work continues. I have nothing but optimism and faith in your commitment to continue delivering public health and environmental protections for every person in this great country.”
FILE - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan speaks during an event, Dec. 20, 2021, outside the EPA Headquarters, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File )
FILE - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan speaks at the University of Maryland, May 11, 2023, in College Park, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan, left, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, April 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - EPA Administrator Michael Regan stands near the Marathon Petroleum Refinery as he conducts a television interview, while touring neighborhoods that abut the refinery, in Reserve, La., Nov. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A group of Gisèle Pelicot’s Australian admirers said Friday they're moved that the victim in France’s notorious drugging-and-rape case has acknowledged her distant supporters Down Under by wearing a scarf adorned with Aboriginal art.
The 72-year-old who refused to remain an anonymous victim wore the silk scarf several times during the trial in Avignon, including when 51 men were convicted and sentenced to prison for molesting her after she had been drugged by her former husband, Dominique Pelicot.
Thursday's ruling made headlines around the world, prompting reactions from thousands of individuals and political leaders alike who praised her bravery and the awareness raised by her trial of sexual violence against women.
“Shame must change sides. Thank you, Gisèle Pelicot!” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social platform X. “You courageously came out of anonymity and went public and battled for justice. You gave women worldwide a strong voice. The disgrace is always the perpetrator’s.”
“Too often, victims of sexualized violence are not believed or even given a share of the blame,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote on X. “Gisèle Pelicot encouraged a lot of people to fight back and to report the violence — what an admirable woman! It is not the victims but the perpetrators who should be ashamed.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez praised Pelicot's “dignity.”
The story dominated the news in Britain, with Pelicot’s photo splashed across news websites and newspaper front pages, with headlines hailing her courage and strength.
“World’s Bravest Woman,” the Daily Mirror cover proclaimed.
The story took up all of the Guardian’s front page beneath the masthead and continued on several pages inside.
The Daily Mail devoted seven pages to the court case, and columnist Sarah Vine declared Pelicot woman of the year. “For courageously taking down her scumbag husband, she deserves everyone’s respect,” the headline said.
The scarf that Pelicot donned was a 220 Australian dollar ($137) gift from a Sydney-based rights advocacy group, the Older Women’s Network, its chief executive Yumi Lee said.
“We were astounded, absolutely gobsmacked, honored that she accepted our gesture of solidarity,” Lee said.
Lee, 59, said her group, which has 1,000 members across New South Wales state and campaigns on issues including sexual violence, raised donations to buy the scarf in September when the court case was already underway.
Members decided on the gesture because Avignon, 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from Sydney, was too distant for most to travel to demonstrate their support in person, Lee said.
Pelicot "has said that shame has to change sides and she wants all the victims of sexual assault to think that if she can do it, they can too,” Lee said.
“She has also proven that sexual assault knows no barriers. Everyone from young to old are victims of sexual assault. So she’s busted that myth,” Lee added.
Lee said she was surprised that Pelicot’s lawyer wrote to her group to acknowledge receipt of the scarf.
“Her lawyer wrote to us to say she has received it and was interested in the fact that it’s a First Nations design," Lee said.
The scarf is a reproduction of the art of Indigenous painter Mulyatingki Marney. It depicts a cluster of saltwater pools, known for their healing properties, on Marney’s traditional land, the retailer One of Twelve said on its website.
The Canberra-based business showcases art from the Asia-Pacific region and pays the artists royalties from the sale of scarves and ties, as well as woven bags from Papua New Guinea called bilums.
“We picked this design because, number one, it’s beautiful, it’s got lovely colors, it’s drawn by a First Nations, older woman and it’s a story about healing,” Lee said.
One of Twelve owner Anna Saboisky said the attention Pelicot had brought to their scarf had overwhelmed the tiny business.
A second print run of scarves had almost sold out and a third was on its way, she said.
“Since I woke up this morning, I’ve had about 20 orders placed online,” Saboisky said. “We’re just a small business. It’s completely unprecedented to have so much interest in one scarf."
Lee said if Avignon had not been so far away, “we would be there shouting.”
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This story has been corrected to give Gisèle Pelicot's age as 72.
A montage of the frontpages of some of of Britain's newspapers featuring reaction to the Gisele Pelicot rape trial case in London, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Spanish national newspapers publish the case of Gisele Pelicot on their front pages, photographed at a news stand in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Gisele Pelicot exits the Avignon courthouse, in southern France, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
FILE - Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house wearing a scarf printed with artwork of Martu woman, Mulyatingki Marney, in Avignon, southern France, on Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
