President Joe Biden plans to nominate Massachusetts State Representative Maria Robinson to serve as assistant secretary in the Office of Electricity at the Department of Energy, the White House announced Wednesday.
Robinson, a Framingham Democrat in her second term on Beacon Hill, currently heads the House side of the Clean Energy Caucus and serves as the state’s lead to the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, where she is on the board, the White House said.
Robinson, 34, is also the sole state legislator on the U.S. EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the White House said.
In an interview Wednesday, Robinson said the opportunity to bring her background in energy policy to Washington “is a dream come true.”
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Sharing the news on Twitter Wednesday, Robinson said she is originally from the northeastern Pennsylvania city of Wilkes-Barre, not far from Biden’s hometown of Scranton.
“I’m from the same area of coal country as the president of the United States and he certainly loomed large in our collective consciousness,” she told the Globe. “To join his administration is an honor.”
As a kid originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania, being asked to serve by @POTUS is the honor of a lifetime. This gal from Wilkes-Barre will be proud to serve under Joe from Scranton.
— Maria Robinson (@mariarobinsonMA) September 22, 2021
Before she became the first Korean-American elected to the State House in 2018, Robinson led Advanced Energy Economy’s Wholesale Markets Program, the White House said. In this role, Robinson “worked directly with state, regional, and federal agencies to reduce policy barriers for advanced clean energy technologies,” according to her LinkedIn page.
Robinson holds a bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s from the University of Tulsa in its Jurisprudence of Energy Law program.
Robinson is currently a lecturer in the School of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Tufts, and is a lifetime Girl Scout after earning her Silver Award, the White House said.
“It’s clear that climate change is a major priority of the Biden administration,” she said. “Helping move the electricity system into the mid-21st century is going to be incredibly important.”
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Robinson is the latest in a line of Bay State officials to be tapped for a role in Biden’s administration. In July, Biden nominated Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins for U.S. Attorney of Massachusetts. In June, Biden announced Massachusetts Representative Claire Cronin, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, as his nominee for ambassador to Ireland. Last year, Biden picked Massachusetts General Hospital infectious diseases chief Rochelle Walensky to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Follow him @NickStoico.