EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is urging California officials to “flip over tables” or “fire people” if that’s what it takes to hasten the rebuilding of homes lost when wildfires ravaged Los Angeles early last year.
Zeldin prodded officials during a White House Cabinet meeting Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump enlisted Zeldin to lead the administration’s wildfire recovery in Los Angeles.
Trump praised Zeldin and his team for acting swiftly to issue federal permits in the wake of the fire that devastated the city last year.
Zeldin “and his team gave them the most complicated permit within 20 days,” Trump said Thursday. “Every single house that burned down got the federal approval,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, it’s well over a year, and the state and the city … they have been unable to give permits.”
