Trump’s EPA nominee stays vague on plans as senators press him on climate views

Lee Zeldin said Americans deserve a clean environment “without suffocating the economy” during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a department likely to play a central role in President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to slash federal regulations and promote oil and gas development.

“The American people elected President Trump last November in part due to serious concerns about upward economic mobility,” Zeldin said. “A big part of this will require building private sector collaboration to promote common sense, smart regulation.”

It was a mostly friendly hearing that occasionally grew pointed when Democrats questioned Zeldin about climate change asking what, if anything, Zeldin thinks should be done about a problem that has worsened floods and raised sea levels but that Trump has dismissed.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, for example, asked about basic climate science, including what impact carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have on the atmosphere.

“I don’t sit before you as a scientist,” Zeldin said. After a follow up question, he did say that carbon dioxide traps heat.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman serving part of Long Island, has been a longtime Trump ally. He served on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment and voted against certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump led efforts to dismantle environmental protections during his first term and has promised to do so again. Experts and advocates believe that Zeldin’s first tasks will be overturning President Joe Biden’s biggest climate accomplishments, including tailpipe regulations for vehicles and slashing pollution from power plants.

During the hearing, however, Zeldin repeatedly declined to commit to specific policies, promising instead not to prejudge outcomes before arriving at EPA. When asked by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska about whether he would roll back programs that promote electric cars — a program Trump has criticized — Zeldin stayed vague but acknowledged Republican opposition.

“I will tell you that I have heard concerns from you, and many others in this chamber, of how important it is to look at rules that are currently on the books,” he said.

He made it clear that he believed in strict limits on the EPA’s regulatory power. He pledged to honor a Supreme Court decision from last year that weakened the federal government’s ability to write strong regulations and fill in gaps in the law when those laws aren’t clear. It was one of several blows to the EPA’s regulatory authority in recent years — the justices also curtailed the EPA’s power to write broad air and water protections.

“Laws are written by Congress and there are cases that have come out of the Supreme Court that provide the EPA with clear guidance on how we must do our job under the law,” Zeldin said.

Zeldin told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that Americans deserved safe water and clean air and promised to strike a more cooperative relationship with states — several Republican senators said they were tired of the Biden administration’s heavy handed approach to enforcement.

The League of Women voters, a national environmental advocacy group, has panned Zeldin’s lifetime environmental record, giving him a 14% score. Like all Republicans at the time, he voted against the Inflation Reduction Act aimed at boosting renewable energy, manufacturing and fighting climate change.

Zeldin’s record includes bright spots for environmentalists. He supported a bill to reduce harmful forever chemicals, called PFAS, that would have required the EPA to set limits on substances in drinking water. He also was a leading proponent of the Great American Outdoors Act, which used oil and gas royalties to help the National Park Service tackle its massive maintenance backlog. He’s supported local conservation efforts, too.

Soon after Trump picked Zeldin to run the agency, he was less reserved in his views, telling a Fox News interviewer that “left wing” regulations hurt businesses.

“One of the biggest issues for so many Americans was the economy, and the president was talking about unleashing economic prosperity through the EPA,” he said at the time.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed reporting from Washington.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment