Business

The O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant has been at the center of a decades-long debate over which entity has responsibility for financing long-needed repairs. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said fixing the city’s water system could cost more than $1 billion. The state’s Republican leaders have accused the city of mismanaging the facility, while Jackson officials have said few cities could afford the kinds of costly upgrades it requires using utility revenue and municipal funds alone. Still, some elected Democratic officials, such as Rep. Bennie Thompson, have also expressed some frustration with the city. For Biden, who has made helping those types of disadvantaged communities a priority, steering money through state governments reluctant to cede control to the federal government presen...

The administration’s allies praised Zaidi and Podesta, who had previously served as a White House climate adviser for former President Barack Obama. “I can think of no one more dedicated to stopping climate change than John Podesta,” Center for American Progress CEO Patrick Gaspard said in a statement. “We are delighted that Ali is succeeding Gina and have high expectations for more progress to come,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski added in a statement. McCarthy, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency for four years during the Obama administration, had long been at the national forefront in developing strategies to reduce climate change. But those efforts also drew the ire of advocates for low-income and minority communities who complained that her office pu...