The Senate controlled by Republicans on Wednesday confirmed Lee Zeldin to direct the Environmental Protection Agency, a key role to help President Trump fulfill his promise to Reversal the main environmental regulationsincluding those destined to slow down climate change and encourage the use of electric vehicles.
The vote was 56-42 in favor of Zeldin.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, is a Trump ally for a long time and served in Trump’s defense team during his first political trial. He voted against certifying the electoral loss of 2020 Mr. Trump before former President Joe Biden.
Zeldin, 44, said during his confirmation hearing that he has the moral responsibility of being a good environmental administrator and promised to support the professional staff who has dedicated himself to the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment.
Zeldin repeatedly refused to commit to specific policies, however, promising not prejudging the results before reaching EPA. When Republican Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska asked him if he would reverse programs that promote electric cars, a program that Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized, Zeldin remained vague but acknowledged that he has heard republican complaints.
Trump directed the efforts to dismantle more than 100 environmental protections during his first mandate and has promised to do so again, pointing to what falsely label a “mandate” of electric vehicle and “new scam” approved by the Democrats.
Trump, who has called for climate change a hoax, has promised to cancel the greatest climatic achievements of Biden, including the exhaust pipe regulations for vehicles and the pollution cut from the electric plants fired by coal and natural gas. Trump has already moved to expel the professional staff of the EPA and other agencies, eliminate scientific advisors and close an office that helps minority communities that fight disproportionately with contaminated air and water.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island called Zeldin the wrong man for work.
“We need an EPA administrator who takes climate change seriously, we will treat science honestly and keep up with the political pressure that will come from the White House, where we have a president who really believes (climate change) is a deception, and of the huge fossil fuel forces that promoted him to the position with huge amounts of political money and now think they own the place, “said Whitehouse in a speech by the Senate.
Trump is “under the thumb of the fossil fuel industry,” said Whitause, added that the EPA administrator “has to be honest and objective and support and defend our environment and our security of climate change.”
He has nothing against Zeldin personally, Whitehouse added, “but the probability that he will face that excavator of fossil fuel that comes towards him is essentially zero. And in that context, this is the wrong guy.”
Republican senator John Barraso de Wyoming said that Zeldin will return the EPA to his original mission to protect the air, water and land of the United States, without “quelling the economy.”
Barraso called Zeldin “a public servant of a lifetime” and an experienced lawyer with an acute legal mind and more than 20 years of military service.
Zeldin will continue Trump’s “mission to make political and punishing regulations” in the EPA, “cut bureaucracy” and supervise “a new wave of creativity and innovation,” said Barraso.
“During the last four years, the so -called experts from the Environmental Protection Agency made a reckless regulatory uproar,” said Barraso, referring to the Biden Administration. “.
Zeldin “will correct the ship and restore the balance in the EPA,” said Barraso, citing possible actions to repeal the rules of the Biden era on the emissions of exhaust pipes and electric power plants, together with the elimination of federal subsidies for federal subsidies electric vehicles.
The League of Conservation Voters, a National Environmental Defense Group, has criticized Zeldin’s Environmental Life Registry, giving him a 14%score. Like all Republicans at that time, he voted against the inflation reduction law of 2022 aimed at promoting renewable energy and manufacturing and combating climate change.
Zeldin supported a bill to reduce harmful chemicals forever, called PFA, which would have required the EPA to establish limits in substances in drinking water. He was also a leading proponent of the Over Aire Law of Great American 2020, who used oil and gas royalties to help the national parks service to face his accumulation of mass maintenance. He has also supported local conservation efforts in Long Island.
Zeldin said at his January 16 audience that he wants to collaborate with the private sector “to promote intelligent regulation of common sense that will allow US innovation to continue leading the world.”
The EPA under its leadership “will prioritize compliance as much as possible,” said Zeldin. “I believe in the rule of law and I want to work with people to make sure they do their part to protect the environment.”
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