Brenda Mallory, an environmental lawyer and longtime environmental justice advocate, will head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, after the Senate voted to confirm her nomination Wednesday. Mallory is the first Black person to serve as CEQ chair, where she will coordinate energy and environmental policy and enforcement, as well as the approval of major infrastructure projects including oil pipelines. Mallory served as CEQ’s general counsel during the Obama administration before a stint as regulatory policy director at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “CEQ will help our nation rise to the environmental challenges of our time, from climate change and the nature crisis to the environmental injustices that have plagued our country for too long,” Mallory said in a statement. (Reuters, New York Times $, E&E $, The Hill)