On the day President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Zeldin told Fox News’s “The Story” that his role will be to help “unleash economic prosperity” — in part by cutting regulations.
“We have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to…struggle,” Zeldin said on November 11, 2024.
For Zeldin, those rollbacks will help boost energy development and American industries.
“We have the ability to pursue energy dominance, to be able to make the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world, to bring back American jobs to the auto industry, and so much more,” Zeldin said.
In his statement announcing the nomination, Trump said Zeldin will accomplish those tasks “while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards.”
If he’s confirmed, Zeldin will take over the agency tasked with enforcing federal pollution standards. It has also played a big role in climate policy, especially under the Biden administration.
Zeldin was an unexpected choice. He’s a former congressman from Long Island — not a nationally known figure on environmental issues. As his Senate confirmation hearing gets underway Thursday, he’s expected to support Trump's economic agenda strongly by cutting what he sees as burdensome environmental regulations.
As a Republican Representative, he backed some measures with direct impacts back home in his coastal district. He represented eastern Long Island from 2015 until 2023. The communities there sit on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Water quality and tourism are major issues.
He worked to block offshore drilling, clean up Long Island Sound, and acknowledged the impacts of climate change.
“We love our parks,” he said at a 2019 news conference on Long Island announcing permanent funding for land and water conservation programs. “We love our beaches. We care about plans for coastal resiliency. We see the impacts of rising sea levels.”
But Zeldin voted with his party against some major environmental measures, including the Inflation Reduction Act which directed hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy and climate fixes.
He became an early and prominent Trump supporter, defending him against impeachment and voting not to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
He ran an unsuccessful, but closer-than-expected, race for New York governor in 2022. He argued the state’s ambitious timeline for cutting greenhouse gas emissions would hurt the middle class, and campaigned on overturning the state’s ban on fracking.
Zeldin’s nomination has been welcomed by the oil and gas industry, along with other critics who say Biden-era environmental policies are too restrictive.
“EPA is one of those places that really needs radical restructuring and downsizing,” said Myron Ebell, a longtime critic of climate action who helped advise the first Trump transition team.
Ebell said he’s hoping for looser restrictions on methane emissions from oil and gas — and carbon emissions from cars and trucks.
“I hope EPA will actually get the heavy-handed government off of the auto industry, so that they can start producing the vehicles that people actually want to buy and can afford,” Ebell said.
Some environmental advocates have raised concerns that Zeldin’s loyalty to Trump will undermine the EPA’s mission.
“He has an anti-climate and anti-environment voting record as a member of the House of Representatives,” said Jen Duggan, executive director at the Environmental Integrity Project. “Perhaps the most important: Lee Zeldin is a close ally of Trump and the fossil fuel industry.”
Duggan said she’s concerned Zeldin will work to slash limits on chemical contamination in the water supply, and she’s particularly concerned about cuts — to the EPA's budget, its scientific research, and to programs that help communities deal with pollution and climate change.
Senators are expected to question him on those issues and more at Thursday’s hearing, although he’s on a safe path to confirmation.
