Reviewing Trump EPA admin nominee Zeldin's environmental record

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to install former New York Congressmember Lee Zeldin as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin, a Republican who represented parts of Long Island in the House of Representatives, has a mixed record on environmental issues.

"Zeldin could choose to help protect communities on the front lines of the climate crisis like his own on Long Island, or he could do the bidding of fossil fuel giants and unleash massive amounts of carbon pollution," said Chitra Kumar, the current managing director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists and the former director of the Office of Policy, Partnerships, and Program Development at EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. "He can't have it both ways."

During a Republican primary debate in March 2016, Trump had said of the EPA, “We are going to get rid of it in almost every form. We’re going to have little tidbits left. But we’re going to take a tremendous amount out.” And he tweeted in 2012: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

His first administration saw Trump nominate two EPA administrators: Scott Pruitt in 2017 and Andrew Wheeler in 2018. Obama administration holdover Catherine McCabe also temporarily filled the role at the beginning of the term.

Pruitt had sued the EPA under President Barack Obama several times while in his post as Attorney General of Oklahoma. The subject of several investigations into mismanagement and corruption, he ultimately resigned under heavy scrutiny in 2018. Even so, his tenure saw budget cuts, weakened regulations, and advisory boards populated by oil and gas industry insiders.

Wheeler, who succeeded Pruitt, previously worked for the late Sen. James Inhofe, who famously brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to deny climate change in 2015. Under Wheeler, the EPA unilaterally suspended any enforcement of environmental regulations due to COVID in March 2020.

A New York Times analysis found that Trump reversed or weakened over 100 environmental rules concerning pollution, emissions, and fuel production. The Trump EPA under Pruitt and Wheeler removed protections for wetlands, dropped restrictions on mercury emissions from power plants, and eased limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, cars, and trucks.

The administration also fast-tracked the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, signaling clear support for the fossil fuel industry. White House officials argued that environmental regulations damage businesses and kill jobs.

Zeldin ran for governor on the GOP ticket against Kathy Hochul in 2022, losing by six points. His congressional and gubernatorial campaigns set him up against environmental protections and climate policies like the Inflation Reduction Act. And although he has backed some preservation efforts, he also pushed for policies that environmentalists oppose.

"While we did not always see eye to eye with Rep. Zeldin, we did work to find common ground on several issues during his time in office, including on Plum Island, the Great American Outdoors Act, fighting offshore drilling on the East Coast, EPA actions on PFAS, and restoring funding for Long Island Sound," said Julie Tighe, the president of the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV). "He opposed cuts to the EPA from both Democratic and Republican presidents because, he said, they would hurt the people he was in office to serve."

Zeldin controversially wanted to reverse New York’s 2015 ban on hydraulic fracturing—fracking—which green advocates argue damages water, air, and land. He maintained that fracking brings jobs upstate and lowers energy costs. He also supported building new natural gas pipelines as part of his economic plan while criticizing zero-emission requirements, mocking a ban on gas hookups in new residential construction, and railing against congestion pricing.

He has disagreed with New York’s climate policies and goals, arguing that the state’s push for renewable energy is unrealistic and unfair to private companies. Zeldin’s platform appeared to prioritize economic growth over environmental protection, focusing on energy independence rather than gas emissions.

According to the environmental scorecard from the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which tracks Congressional voting records on environment legislation, Zeldin earned a lifetime rating of 14%. Specifically, they noted, he voted against EPA methane pollution standards.

LCV calculated scores on a 0 to 100 scale, dividing the number of pro-environment votes by the total of votes cast. The average score for House Representatives is around 50%, and New York's delegation averaged 61% overall in 2023. Claiming that he had one of the worst records on environmental issues in the state, LCV rated Zeldin every year he was in office:

ThinkProgress also once listed Zeldin among a climate denier caucus in Congress, alleging that he took in over $100,000 in "dirty money" from energy companies. They defined deniers as lawmakers who doubted the threat of climate change, argued that the climate always changes, or questioned the human role in global warming.

Zeldin previously touted his involvement in a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers known as the House Climate Solutions Caucus. He joined in 2016, the first year of the caucus, though it fizzled out without too much impact after the 2018 mid-terms. It reformed in 2023 when Zeldin was no longer in office.

ThinkProgress explained that being a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus didn't affect an individual's score—they account for votes, not caucus memberships. Even so, Zeldin didn't appear on the group's updated list in subsequent years.

"Congressman Zeldin believes the climate has always been changing," according to an aide quoted by Newsday in 2016. This perspective reflects that of many conservatives, who posit that the planet experiences normal swings in temperature—global warming and cooling.

“[Trump] believes that global warming is naturally occurring,” campaign surrogate Kellyanne Conway told CNN after a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016. “There are shifts naturally occurring.”

NYLCV president Tighe still has reservations. "We are gravely concerned about Trump’s plan to roll back years of environmental progress that has been made over successive administrations," she said. "Zeldin comes from a part of the country where the environment is the economy, where the impacts of climate change—to life and property—are top concerns, where open space protection matters, and where PFAS, 1-4 dioxane and other emerging contaminants in the water supply are pervasive threats to public health."