(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Joe Biden has tapped North Carolina environmental regulator Michael Regan and Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico to advance his climate policy and strengthen safeguards against pollution.

If confirmed, Regan would become Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Haaland secretary of the Interior.

The selections, which were confirmed by people familiar with the deliberations, round out a team of top officials charged with propelling Biden’s ambitious climate agenda, including goals to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035 and pare oil development on public land.

Both candidates have staked out positions against fossil fuel projects that are expected to provoke scrutiny from Republicans in the Senate. Haaland, for instance, has said she’s “wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands” -- a position that was celebrated by environmentalists on Thursday even as it provoked alarm in the oil and gas industry.

The Biden transition declined to comment on the nominations.

“Haaland has been clear about her commitment to ending the exploitation of public lands by fossil fuel corporations,” said Mitch Jones, policy director of Food & Water Watch, an environmental group. Picking Haaland, he said, “is a bold move that signals that Biden is serious about pursuing a full ban on oil and gas leases on public lands.”

The oil and gas industry has already warned of lost jobs and revenue if Biden makes good on vows to block new drilling and fracking on federal lands. Haaland’s home state of New Mexico is near the epicenter of the clash -- with burgeoning oil production that once paid for a free-college program and now provides roughly 39% of the state’s budget.

Any move to curtail oil development could have a significant impact in New Mexico. Roughly 90% of all production in the state’s portion of the oil-rich Permian shale basin was on state and federal lands last year, according to the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association.

The Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico said Thursday it had “serious concerns about the selection of Congresswoman Haaland for the job of interior secretary.”

“Ms. Haaland has repeatedly demonstrated contempt towards our industry, especially regarding the need for a balanced approach to public land management,” the group said. “We urge congressional leaders to closely examine her anti-oil & gas record as they consider this selection.”

‘Watching Closely’

American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers said the group was prepared to work with Biden’s nominees to tackle climate change.

“We will also be watching closely to ensure that the incoming administration keeps President-elect Biden’s campaign promises to the energy workforce and protects the millions of jobs supported by our industry in states like New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and across the country,” Sommers said.

The latest choices fill out Biden’s climate and energy team, coming alongside the president-elect’s decisions to tap former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as a top White House climate adviser, environmental lawyer Brenda Mallory as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary.

Haaland, 60, who is Laguna Pueblo, would be the first Native American to serve in any cabinet position in U.S. history. A Democrat, she was just elected to her second term in the House of Representatives.

Both Haaland and Regan would fill roles critical to advancing the president-elect’s environmental agenda. Under Biden, the EPA is expected to develop new regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, automobiles and oil wells, while reversing some of President Donald Trump’s decisions that undercut limits on pollution. Biden has also promised to halt new oil and gas permitting on federal lands and waters that are managed by the Interior Department.

Clean Energy

Haaland has pledged support for a ban on the fracking technique that has helped propel U.S. oil and gas development to record levels. She’s also a supporter of the Green New Deal, a sweeping plan for a “10-year national mobilization” to shift the U.S. to zero-emission energy sources with trillions in spending on social programs.

Federal lands are a prime source of fossil fuels, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions that come from burning them. Federal lands and waters together accounted for 22% of total U.S. oil production and 12% of U.S. natural gas production last year according to the Energy Information Administration.

At the same time, the oil, gas and coal extracted on federal lands and waters are responsible for about 24% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to a 2018 report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

In the House, Haaland has advocated greater consultation with tribes, conservation of federal lands and federal-tribal collaboration to prevent violent crimes. She worked to block drilling near the sandstone mesas and ruins of northwest New Mexico’s Greater Chaco region.

Regan’s three-year tenure as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has put him in the middle of major disputes about cleaning up pollution and building new energy infrastructure.

He’s had a mixed record vetting gas pipelines that would cut through the state, having blocked a water quality certification essential to a planned extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline but previously providing that critical certification for the Atlantic Coast pipeline.

The Atlantic Coast pipeline, since abandoned by developers, would have carried gas from West Virginia to public utilities in Virginia and North Carolina.

“North Carolina’s clean energy future is not dependent on adding more natural gas infrastructure,” Regan said at the time. “We should invest in clean, renewable energy sources and the economic benefits of energy innovation.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.