President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead EPA is getting a warm reception among top Capitol Hill Republicans, while Democrats say the choice spells doom for clean air and water regulations.
Trump announced on Monday that Lee Zeldin — a former New York representative and one-time GOP gubernatorial candidate — would be his nominee for EPA administrator.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is expected to become chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee in January and oversee Zeldin’s confirmation process, lauded the pick and said she would advance the nomination quickly in a statement to POLITICO’s E&E News.
“President Trump has made a strong choice in selecting former Congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency,” Capito said. “I look forward to promptly considering Rep. Zeldin’s nomination in the Environment and Public Works Committee and to working with him to roll back regulatory overreach and unleash American energy production.”
First elected to the House in 2014, Zeldin was a member of both the Conservative Climate Caucus and the Climate Solutions Caucus.
He lost a close gubernatorial bid to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022 but has continued to rail against the Biden administration’s environmental policy and the paused plan to impose congestion pricing in New York City.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), another Environment and Public Works member and a Trump ally on energy issues, quickly backed Zeldin’s selection on X, calling him a “friend and former colleague.”
“Lee is smart, thoughtful and understands the role regulatory overreach plays in stifling American ingenuity and energy dominance, which in turn stifles our economy,” Cramer said. “I am confident Lee will correct course quickly and I will do everything I can to push his confirmation through the committee as quickly as possible.”
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said the EPA under President Joe Biden has implemented “delusional and expensive regulations.”
“As a member of the Committee that oversees the EPA, I look forward to getting Lee confirmed as soon as possible so we can finally give the American people the relief they’ve been calling for,” he said in a statement.
Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), who is running to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee if the GOP takes the House majority, joined in on congratulating Zeldin.
“I look forward to working closely with Lee as the next Chair of the Energy & Commerce Committee to advance policies that unleash U.S. energy dominance and allow the U.S. to continue leading the world in reducing emissions,” he said in a statement.
Democrats are wary of the Zeldin pick, though he has been less opposed to climate and other environmental action compared with other Trump loyalists.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who also sits on EPW, wrote on X that Trump “has chosen to reward a 2020 election denier, whose only job will be to reward corporate polluters by gutting the EPA and making our air and water dirtier.”
Zeldin voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won, and was a fierce Trump defender during House impeachment battles.
Republicans will likely have a three-vote majority in the Senate next year. The last time a Republican EPA administrator nominee was confirmed — Andrew Wheeler in 2019 — the vote broke along party lines.
Rep. Jared Huffman of California, a top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, warned that the pick signals Trump’s EPA will focus heavily on slashing regulations that protect the environment.
“It signals pretty clearly, and this is no surprise, that [Trump] regards this as an agency where regulations need to be slashed, as opposed to standards protected,” Huffman said. “It’s a signal that the attack on the regulatory state is going to move forward in a big way at EPA, and things like clean air and clean water and public health are going to be secondary if even considered at all.”
Huffman added, “He just has no profile on environmental issues at all, so it to me says that the entire agenda is attacking the administrative state and not the mission of the agency.”
Trump on Monday also rewarded another top House defender, New York Republican Elise Stefanik, with an expected nomination to become United Nations ambassador.
The League of Conservation Voters, an influential environmental group, was tepid on Zeldin’s nomination and challenged him to “be better than Trump’s campaign promises.” Zeldin has a 14 percent lifetime LCV score based on his votes.
“The stakes for our climate and future generations could not be higher, and we’re all in to fight for our communities and defend the climate, clean energy, and environmental justice progress we have made,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the group’s senior vice president for government affairs.
During his time in Congress, Zeldin was also a member of the Estuary Caucus and the Long Island Sound Caucus. He served on the Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees.
