Zeldin, a 44-year-old lawyer and former Army lieutenant, has no experience in environmental policy. He began his political career through the Novel York State Senate in 2011, serving in that capacity until 2014. That same year, he was elected U.S. Representative to the state’s 1st Congressional District, which covers most of Long Island.
As a congressman, Zeldin did not serve on any subcommittee overseeing environmental policy. He regularly voted against progressive climate and environmental policies, earning a lifetime vote of high only 14 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, an advocacy group that tracks congressional positions on environmental legislation. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, he voted against an amendment to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from finalizing a Trump-era soot standard that would have exposed communities of color to additional air pollution, research shows connected to increased mortality from Covid. Ultimately, the amendment was adopted.
In 2021, Zeldin voted against the bill that would require public companies to disclose information about climate risks associated with their business models. This bill also passed. The following year he supported failed bill which would invalidate U.S. participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a process that encourages international coordination of climate policy and includes participation in annual UN climate conference.
Especially Zeldin voted for bill that would require EPA to set drinking water standards for PFAS and PFOA, so-called “forever chemicals” that accumulate in the environment and have been linked to a number of cancers and other sedate health problems. A local news station discovered it last year 33 of Long Island’s 48 water districts contain traces of these chemicals in their drinking water.
In 2022, Zeldin ran for Governor of Novel York and lost to Hochul.
Zeldin’s nomination marks the departure of current EPA Administrator Michael Regan, whose term will expire when Trump takes office in January. Unlike Zeldin, Regan has a background in environmental science and, prior to her appointment as administrator, served as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and worked as an air quality specialist at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, he oversaw the Biden administration’s historic environmental justice efforts, which included community engagement sessions, strengthening national particulate matter standards, and reviewing regulations for many chemical plants.
Time will tell whether, and to what extent, Regan’s initiatives and regulations will persist into the years of the second Trump administration. Zeldin’s nomination will have to be confirmed by the vote of the Senate, which won a Republican majority in the elections earlier this month.
If confirmed, Zeldin would have significant power in shaping the national direction of climate and environmental policy. In addition to overseeing the enforcement of applicable environmental laws and regulations, he will perform this function tasked with preparing the EPA’s annual budgetwhich determines how much funding will be allocated to activities such as state surveillance and air monitoring. A more fossil fuel-oriented administrator could choose to gut these parts of the agency, allowing industry-friendly state agencies like the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to blindly regulate.
Trump ran on a platform that prioritized minimizing regulatory oversight and maximizing fossil fuel production. Zeldin’s nomination will be key to seeing this through.