Former First Congressional District Rep. Lee Zeldin will be appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement he posted today on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Zeldin has “a very strong legal background” and “has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump said in the statement.
“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,” the President-elect said. “He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”
Zeldin will take the helm of a federal agency in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the “deep state,” and kill regulations that the President-elect says impede economic growth. At the top of Trump’s EPA agenda are rules aimed at combatting global warming: regulations that limit fossil fuel pollution from power plants and vehicles. Trump also advocates more drilling for oil and gas, including more off-shore drilling, while vehemently opposing wind power. The President-elect opposes the Biden administration’s push to transition from gas-powered to electric vehicles.
The success of Trump’s environmental agenda now rests with Zeldin, a native Long Islander and conservative Republican from Shirley who represented the First Congressional District from 2015 to 2023. Zeldin, after serving two terms as a a state senator, unseated incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop in November 2014. He handily won re-election three times. He did not seek a fifth term in the House and instead ran for governor of New York in 2022. He lost to Gov. Kathy Hochul, but came within six points of the Democrat, closer than other Republicans running for governor in New York in recent history.
Environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters gave Zeldin poor marks for an “anti-environment” voting record while in Congress. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks legislators on a scale of 0 to 100, has assigned Zeldin a lifetime score of 14% on environmental issues. See LCV’s national environmental scorecard for Zeldin. The organization said Zeldin had the worst record on environmental issues in the New York Congressional delegation.
MORE COVERAGE: Zeldin at the bottom of N.Y. congressional delegation on environmental group’s scorecard
While representing the eastern Long Island congressional district, Zeldin supported many Trump administration efforts to roll back or rescind environmental regulations the President said interfered with enhancing energy production or were burdensome to industry.
Zeldin backed the revision of vehicle mileage standards that were initially put in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Trump administration lowered these standards, arguing that less stringent requirements would lead to economic benefits. Environmental advocates and several states opposed the move, arguing it was a step back from efforts to combat climate change.
Zeldin also supported the Trump administration’s replacement of the Clean Power Plan, which was established to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the electricity sector, with the Affordable Clean Energy rule. The Affordable Clean Energy rule provided more lenient guidelines and did not set strict emission performance rates for states. The Trump administration shifted away from stringent federal emissions standards and towards granting more autonomy to individual states in determining how to improve power plant emissions efficiency.
He was a member of the House Climate Solution Caucus, but declined to sign a letter from members of the caucus urging Trump not to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, an international accord committed to reducing carbon emissions to combat global warming.
He voted to repeal the Clean Water Rule, which protects streams that feed the aquifer.
MORE COVERAGE: Is Riverhead prepared to handle the impacts of climate change?
However, Zeldin broke ranks with Trump by opposing the Trump administration’s plan to allow offshore oil and gas exploration in nearly all U.S. territorial waters, except within a 25-nautical mile coastal buffer. The plan, advanced by the Interior Department in January 2018, implemented an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April 2017, requiring the U.S. to widen domestic energy exploration. About 94% of the outer continental shelf was off-limits to oil and gas drilling under rules adopted in 2017 by the Obama administration before Trump took office.
The plan drew bipartisan opposition on Long Island and in states along the East Coast.
After then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced the plan, Zeldin organized a press conference at the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead in opposition to the plan.
MORE COVERAGE: Don’t drill for oil and gas off Long Island coast: Zeldin, local officials, environmental and business leaders protest fed plan
Zeldin said at the time that, while he supports “an energy strategy that secures American energy independence and drives down costs… on Long Island, however, our waterways are our way of life, and drilling off of Long Island is unacceptable and counterproductive to the well-being of our communities.”
He voted for a bill to require the EPA to set limits on toxic man-made chemicals known as PFAS in drinking water, which the EPA did under the Biden administration.
PFAS contamination of Long Island’s sole source drinking water aquifer is a growing problem on Long Island — and in Zeldin’s former congressional district in particular, where PFAS contamination at the former Navy plant in Calverton, operated by Grumman for decades, has affected groundwater both on site and in surrounding neighborhoods that rely on private wells for drinking water. A groundwater plume from the former Navy plant has carried PFAS to the Peconic River, south of the site. The river is part of the Peconic Estuary system, a designated estuary of national significance.
Zeldin stood with constituents in calling for the Navy to take responsibility for off-site PFAS pollution. In 2021, he also asked the EPA for $14 million in federal funds to help the Riverhead Water District and Suffolk County Water Authority to bring public water to areas affected by PFAS contamination near the former Grumman site.
MORE COVERAGE: A united community demands public water in area near former Grumman site — but Navy shows no sign of budging
Zeldin co-chaired the Congressional Long Island Sound Caucus. The First Congressional District has more than 55 miles of Long Island Sound shoreline. He was proud of his efforts to secure funding to restore the ecosystem of the L.I. Sound, which like the Peconic Estuary, is also a designated estuary of national significance. He was the lead Republican sponsor of f the Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act in the 114th Congress, one of only two Republicans among the 16 co-sponsors of the measure.
Zeldin opposed legislation in 2020 that would have drastically reduced the EPA’s budget. In 2022, he voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, a Biden climate law that passed along party lines and made more than $350 million available for clean energy programs and electric vehicles.
Zeldin was a Trump loyalist in the House of Representatives.
He was one of eight Republican members of the House named by Trump to his impeachment defense team in 2020. Zeldin said on Twitter Jan. 20, 2020 he was “honored to be asked to serve” on the President’s impeachment defense team. “The President NEVER should have been impeached in the first place!” he wrote.
He voted against certifying presidential election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania, the two states that were subject to objections supported by members of both the House and Senate. Zeldin supported objections to certifying the results of Georgia and Wisconsin, but only Arizona and Pennsylvania were put to a vote because the other states lacked objectors in the Senate.
Both votes were taken by the House of Representatives in the early morning hours on Wednesday, Jan. 7, following a long recess in proceedings on Jan. 6, caused by pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification.
On Jan. 6, the rioters breached barricades, overwhelmed Capitol Police and broke doors and windows to gain entry to the building as lawmakers met in both chambers. The sessions were cut short as the mob could be heard in the corridors. The lawmakers were evacuated and staff members and reporters barricaded themselves in offices. The chaotic scenes were broadcast live on television. By the time it was over, four people were dead and scores of police officers were injured, some seriously.
A week later, Zeldin argued against the second impeachment of the president, decrying “double standards” that he said existed in the House. He thanked the president for his accomplishments in office and said Trump “did a lot to make America greater than ever.”
In 2022, Trump gave Zeldin a strong endorsement in his campaign for N.Y. governor. He described Zeldin as a “winner” and a “brilliant lawyer” who held strong positions on the military, crime, and border issues. He praised Zeldin for getting things done and being a resource for other Republicans in Congress.
In an interview on Fox News yesterday, Zeldin said the Trump administration in the first 100 days has “the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle,” forcing them to cut costs, even moving overseas to avoid the costs of compliance.
“There are regulations that the left wing of this country have been advocating through regulatory power that ends up causing businesses to go in the wrong direction,” Zeldin told Martha MacCallum, host of “The Story” on Fox News Channel.
He described President-elect Trump as bursting with “ideas of what to do with this agency to improve the economy” during a phone conversation earlier in the day.
Working to improve the economy is part of the EPA’s mission, according to Trump.
“Advancing America-first policies is one of the reasons why President Trump got elected,” Zeldin said. We have to make America great again. And often when he talks about that, the end of his rally speeches, he was also talking about making our country prosperous again, and it’s something that he deeply believes in,” he said.
“This is going to be a great four years for America. It’s not just about a great day one or a great first 100 days. I have a feeling that we’re on the verge of what could be the greatest four years we’ve ever seen of any president in the White House,” Zeldin said.
The appointment of EPA administrator requires approval by the U.S. Senate.
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