By Timothy Gardner and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will appoint Republican former congressman Lee Zeldin, who has often voted against legislation on green issues including a measure to prevent oil companies from raising prices, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be made in a way that will unleash the power of corporate America while maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on earth,” Trump said in a statement speech. post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump, a Republican, will likely try to undo many of the EPA’s rules on fossil fuel burning, including one that would reduce CO2 emissions from power plants and another that would reduce emissions from vehicles.
Trump has said he plans to begin repealing EPA and Transportation Department vehicle pollution rules on his first day in office and is considering reducing or eliminating electric car tax credits and other incentives.
Trump also plans to revoke California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions rules, as he did in 2019.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, restored California’s authority. Trump will also decide how to spend billions of dollars in electric vehicle charging subsidies.
As a candidate for governor of New York in the 2022 election, Zeldin criticized the state’s decision to join California’s Zero Emission Vehicle program, which promises to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 .
Zeldin, 44, also pushed in that failed campaign for a reversal of New York’s ban on fracking, a drilling technique opposed by many environmentalists in the state who said it would create jobs.
“We will restore American energy dominance, revive our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the world leader in AI,” Zeldin said on the social media platform intelligence used. Zeldin will need to be confirmed by the Senate, which regained a Republican majority in this month’s elections.
During his time in Congress from 2015 to 2023 representing New York, Zeldin cast “yes” votes on key pieces of environmental legislation just 14% of the time, according to a scorecard from environmental group the League of Conservation Voters.
The average score in the House of Representatives in 2022, Zeldin’s last year in Congress, was 52%. But his lifetime score exceeded the 4% average of the four Republican House leaders that year.
Zeldin voted against Biden’s landmark climate change bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which received no Republican votes, and rejected legislation that would crack down on price gouging by oil companies.
In 2016, Zeldin joined the House of Representatives’ bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which says it is committed to fighting climate change while protecting U.S. economic prosperity.
“During the confirmation process, we would challenge Lee Zeldin to show how he would do better than Trump’s campaign promises or his own failing 14% environmental rating if he wants to be charged with protecting the air we breathe, the water we drinking and finding solutions to climate change,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president at the League of Conservation Voters.
