The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced Lee Zeldin was sworn in as the 17th administrator of the agency. In the role, Zeldin will work closely with career officials at the agency to fulfill the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment.
“It is my honor to serve at the 17th Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. Under President Trump’s leadership, we will take great strides to defend every American’s access to clean air, clean water and clean land,” Zeldin says in a statement issued after his confirmation. “We will maintain and expand the gold standard of environmental stewardship and conservation that President Trump set forth in his first administration while also prioritizing economic prosperity. I look forward to working with the agency’s talented staff and scientists to deliver results for the American people. It’s time to get to work.”
Zeldin, 44, said during his confirmation hearing that he has a moral responsibility to be a good steward of the environment and pledged to support career staff who have dedicated themselves to the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment, the Associated Press reports. Zeldin declined to commit to specific policies, however, promising instead not to prejudge outcomes before arriving at EPA
Zeldin is currently in his 22nd year in the United States military, having deployed to Iraq in 2006 with the Army’s Elite 82nd Airborne Division and continues to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve. He served in the New York State Senate from 2011-2014 and later represented New York’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015-2023. He unsuccessfully ran for governor of New York in 2022.
During eight years in Congress, according to the EPA’s release, Zeldin worked across party lines to preserve the Long Island Sound and Plum Island. He supported key legislation that became historic, bipartisan success stories like the Great American Outdoors Act and Save our Seas Act to clean up plastics from our oceans. He also led the fight for Sea Grant, combated per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water, voted for the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act and supported clean energy projects on Long Island.
The League of Conservation Voters, a Washington-based national environmental advocacy group, gave Zeldin’s lifetime environmental record a score of 14 percent, citing his vote against the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act aimed at boosting renewable energy and manufacturing and fighting climate change.
At the age of 23, Zeldin became the youngest attorney in New York State at the time.
Patrick Serfass, Executive Director of the American Biogas Council, Washington, issued the following statement congratulating Zeldin on his confirmation to become the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator:
“On behalf of the American Biogas Council and its member companies, we congratulate Mr. Zeldin on his confirmation and look forward to working with him. Our industry is excited to assist the EPA in carrying out the president’s energy agenda. The biogas industry provides clean, homegrown renewable energy to help achieve the goals put forward by the administration. We are excited to work with Mr. Zeldin to promote policies that enhance economic opportunities in rural America and lower costs for consumers, while producing reliable, baseload renewable energy.”
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