President-elect Joe Biden is set to name Michael Regan as his pick for the nations 16th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency , putting North Carolinas top pollution regulator in charge of a research and rule-making body thrust into turmoil, a source with knowledge of the pick told HuffPost.

If confirmed, Regan, 44, would be the first Black man to run the EPA. He would take over an agency in upheaval following four years of political meddling under a Trump administration that has installed fossil fuel lobbyists and allies in top positions and driven out legions of career scientists and regulators.

His first few months will focus largely on triage as the new Biden administration halts controversial rules, reverses the federal position in environmentalists lawsuits challenging Trump-era policies, and prioritizes which regulations to take on first.

Yet hell shape the White Houses efforts to deploy clean energy at a record pace and close the nations racial and class gap on who breathes dirtier air and drinks less safe water. In a White House stacked with climate experts, Regan will bring expertise in air pollution an issue that, despite the Trump administrations efforts to obscure the damages to public health, is increasingly understood worldwide as a deadly and urgent threat beyond its implications for climate change.

Hell lead in a historic moment as the United States seizes on a growing threat from severe storms, droughts and wildfires to transform the federal government in ways that, if successful, will set humanity on a path toward averting planetary catastrophe in the decades to come. Unlike past administrators, hell serve alongside a Cabinet tasked with making climate change a priority across agencies. His colleagues could include Obama-era EPA chief Gina McCarthy as a powerful new domestic climate czar and former Secretary of State John Kerry as the face of American climate diplomacy.

Regan, who until now has had little name recognition outside his home state, beat out experienced contenders for the job. In recent days, he overtook California Air Resources Board chief Mary Nichols, a powerful figure who had at one point been considered the front-runner, after activists accused her of failing to address pollution in Black and Latino communities.