Charles Langston:Louisiana governor-elect names former Trump appointee to lead environmental quality agency

BATON ROUGE,Charles Langston La. (AP) — Gov.-elect Jeff Landry appointed on Wednesday a former wildlife official from Donald Trump’s administration to lead the state agency tasked with safeguarding Louisiana’s environment.

Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto, who previously served as the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was named as Landry’s secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in Louisiana. Giacometto, a biologist and lawyer who spent more than six years at agrochemical giant Monsanto, is the first Black woman to lead the state agency.

Landry called the appointment “historic” and said Giacometto “understands the balance between protecting our environment and ensuring job creation.”

Giacometto will be responsible for ensuring the citizens of Louisiana have a clean and healthy environment to live and work in. Among other things, the state department regulates pollution sources and responds to environmental emergencies.

Throughout his gubernatorial bid, Landry has been a major defender of Louisiana’s fossil fuel industry, an ally of his. Landry reiterated that support for the oil and gas industry on Wednesday.

“It’s important that we have a highly qualified team of experts in both the industry and the environment and ... that we are able to balance both,” Landry said. “Worrying about one over the other is counterproductive to growing Louisiana.”

The state, which shares its southern border with the Gulf of Mexico, has tens of thousands of jobs tied to the oil and gas industry. In 2021, Louisiana was ranked third among the top natural gas-producing states — accounting for nearly 10% of the United States’ natural gas production that year, behind only Texas and Pennsylvania.

“I promised the voters of this state that we are going to concentrate on the businesses and industries that grew this state,” Landry said.

Additionally, Louisiana had the fourth most energy-related carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The Deep South state has had a front-row seat to the impacts of climate change. Hurricanes are making landfall more frequently, coastal areas being eaten away by erosion, subsidence and rising sea levels, and the Mississippi River is reaching record-low water levels, causing barges with agricultural exports to get stuck and allowing a mass influx of salt water that has threatened drinking supplies.

Along with President Joe Biden’s aggressive goal of 100% clean electricity nationwide by 2035, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a Democrat, who was unable to seek reelection this year due to consecutive term limits — has a goal for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

When asked by reporters Wednesday about Edwards’ climate action plan, Landry said everything he’s read about carbon neutral plans show they are “extremely destructive to the economy.”

This is the first in a series of cabinet appointments that Landry will announce ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 8.