U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to pick former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to be secretary of energy in his administration, Reuters said quoting two people familiar with the decision.

Granholm, 61, was Michigan's first female governor, serving two terms in the battleground state, from 2003 to 2011.

She worked with Biden, who was vice president under former President Barack Obama, on the 2009 bailout of automobile manufacturers General Motors Co and Chrysler.

Despite concerns from some auto workers, she supported efforts to build advanced battery plants for electric cars in Michigan. She also pushed through a modest energy standard that required a portion of the state's energy be generated by renewable sources.

If confirmed by the Senate, Granholm is expected to play a role in boosting advanced batteries, energy efficiency, and electricity generation from renewable and nuclear power as Biden makes curbing climate change one of the pillars of his administration.

Meanwhile, Biden has tapped Pete Buttigieg to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, according to four people familiar with the matter, making him the first of the president-elect's Democratic rivals for the presidency to land a role in his Cabinet.

The appointment of Buttigieg, 38, is another step in a meteoric political rise for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who showed surprising strength as a presidential candidate. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would run a sprawling federal agency that oversees the nation's airlines, highways and transit systems.

CNN reported that Biden will also name Gina McCarthy as his White House climate czar, making the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency his top domestic climate coordinator.

McCarthy, who currently serves as the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, will lead Biden's newly formed Office of Domestic Climate Policy, a source said. McCarthy served as the administrator of the EPA from 2013 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.

Biden has made tackling climate change a pillar of his upcoming administration, seeking to restore the United States as a global leader on the issue while forcing all federal agencies to rethink their roles in tackling the problem.

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Biden pledges to rejoin Paris Agreement as world leaders set fresh climate goals

(Cover: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden stands between Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as campaigned with them during a drive-in campaign rally at Pullman Yard in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., December 15, 2020. /Reuters)

(With input from Reuters)