President-Elect Biden has selected former Iowa Governor and Former USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to return as his Agriculture Secretary. This is positive for businesses hoping for robust biofuels incentives, as Vilsack is well-versed in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and other biofuel policies.
In his previous tenure at USDA, Vilsack aggressively sought to limit travel centers' ability to redeem SNAP benefits.
President-Elect Biden has not named an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator. The three front-runners are Colin O'Mara, who runs the National Wildlife Federation, Mary Nichols who runs the California Air Resources Board, and former Region 4 (southeast) EPA Administrator Heather McTeer Toney.
O'Mara has expressed skepticism of corn-ethanol but support for advanced biofuels. Nichols is a staunch electric vehicle proponent who has a mixed record of recognizing the essential role that businesses and market-oriented incentives can play in commercializing alternative fuels. Toney's perspective on fuel issues is less well-known.
All of these candidates can be expected to aggressively support EV incentives.
There are a number of names being floated for Transportation Secretary: Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and former Chicago Mayor and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel are the most notable names being floated.
It is positive that President-Elect Biden appears to be focusing on mayors to lead U.S. Department of Transportation (as opposed to former state DOT commissioners). Mayors tend to be more familiar with the tax benefits that businesses such as travel centers can bring to their communities and they should generally be more suspicious of policies such as tolling and rest area commercialization because such policies hurt local communities.
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