Trump Taps Lee Zeldin, Who Promises to Gut Pollution Protections, to Lead the EPA
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Washington, D.C. – Donald Trump has selected fellow Big Oil lackey Lee Zeldin to run the Environmental Protection Agency. This pick is one of Trump’s first appointments – showing that he’s making good on his promise to be a “dictator on day one” when it comes to backing up Big Oil and slashing climate protections. In response to the news, Climate Power executive director Lori Lodes released the following statement:
“Big Oil spent millions of dollars propping up Donald Trump’s campaign—and he’s not wasting any time giving them a good return on their investment. Lee Zeldin is already promising to slash critical protections as head of the EPA. During Donald Trump’s first term in office, he slashed over 125 environmental protections and let polluters off the hook for putting harmful chemicals into our air and water. Trump’s second term agenda will make our air and water dirtier just to make billionaires and big corporations richer—and Americans will pay the price.”
Zeldin’s abysmal climate record includes:
- Voted to slash the EPA’s budget by $1.9 billion or 25 percent in 2017.
- On FoxNews after his appointment, Zeldin promised to “roll back” protections that keep America’s air and water clean and safe.
- Questioning the reality of climate change, saying he was “not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem as other people are.”
- Taking over $260,000 from the oil and gas industry while running for Congress and over $150,000 from the industry during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
- Opposing the clean energy plan, which has created over 28,000 clean energy jobs in his home state of New York and over 330,000 clean energy jobs nationwide.