Biden climate nominee touted 'environmental upside' to pandemic

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One of President Biden’s top State Department climate nominees touted the environmental benefits of the COVID-19 pandemic in an op-ed published while the pandemic was in full swing.

Monica Medina, the president’s nominee for assistant secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Science Affairs, wrote about the "environmental upside" of the pandemic in March 2020 and called for the economy to be restructured around "green" jobs.

Medina is an Obama administration alum and also the wife of Biden's White House chief of staff, Ron Klain.

"In the midst of the economic and health tragedy posed by the coronavirus pandemic, there is an unexpected bright side: the marked improvement in our environment as a result of the massive slowdown," Medina and her co-author, Our Daily Planet founder Miro Korenha, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. 

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"With that comes a responsibility as well — to recover and rebuild in a way that helps deal with the challenge that will persist once the virus is under control," the pair continued.

Medina and her fellow author wrote that they were fearful that people would hurriedly get back to normal "instead of appreciating what we had been missing in our consumption-driven, plastic- and fossil-fuel-addicted world."

The authors said that the recovery from COVID-19 pandemic was the time to make "structural changes" to the US economy and society and that comparing satellite images of air quality over China and Italy shows "the benefits we reap from polluting less and wasting less."

"Now is also the time to make the pivot to sustainability," the pair wrote. "More stimulus funding will be needed to recover our economic vitality — to get businesses up and running again and to create jobs to replace the ones that are gone for good."

"Why shouldn’t these new jobs be green jobs, such as ones to restore coastlines, help build renewable energy infrastructure and grow our food more sustainably?" they asked.

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If confirmed by the Senate, Medina would be the number-two person at the Department of State’s international climate agency.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.