Richmond's role is to be a liaison between corporate America and environmental groups.

Seems like a smart pick to me. Do you really think an environmental firebrand is a good person in that role? His job is to unruffle corporate feathers on policy that has generally already been decided upon. Like Keystone. Which according to every press account I've seen is a done deal. It's dead.

Now, if Joe had picked Richmond to head the EPA, I'd be concerned. But instead, he picked a young, if somewhat still unproven, anti-pollution activist from North Carolina, Michael Regan, to head the EPA.

Caroline Farrell, executive director of the Center On Race, Poverty and the Environment, among other environmentalists, was pleased with the pick, because there were rumors he had a much less qualified (from an environmentalist's standpoint) choice in mind, Mary Nichols from California.

Farrell said, regarding the EPA choice, "We are encouraged (by Biden's picks)," Farrell said, "and we appreciate that they took our concerns seriously."

https://www.alleghenyfront.org/pa-environmental-groups-praise-bidens-epa-pick/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03621-6

Republicans promised a fight over his EPA pick before they got crushed in Georgia. That's also a good indicator that his EPA pick was a good one.