Trump Names His EPA Pick

President-elect Trump named another member of his team Monday, announcing that former Rep. Lee Zeldin is his choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator. If he is confirmed, Zeldin will lead efforts to roll back climate regulations and other Biden administration policies, reports Politico. During his campaign, Trump promised to "kill" and "cancel" rules including restrictions on tailpipe and smokestack emissions, along with a rule intended to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, the New York Times reports.

Zeldin, one of the lawmakers who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, represented a Long Island district in the House for eight years before running for governor of New York in 2022. He lost to Gov. Kathy Hochul, but did better than any Republican had for years. The AP describes him as a "surprising pick" for the EPA, since his campaign speeches have focused more on issues "such as the military, national security, antisemitism, US-Israel relations, immigration, and crime."

• In a statement, Trump said Zeldin will "ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet." The AP notes that Trump's statement misidentified the EPA as the "Environmental Protective Agency."

• Zeldin told Fox News that he plans to "pursue energy dominance ... bring back American jobs to the auto industry and so much more." He said Trump, "when he called me up, gosh, he was rattling off 15, 20 different priorities, a clear focus. He wasn't reading off of some sheet, it's the top of his head. And if I challenged him to give me 50 more ideas of what to do with this agency to improve the economy, I'm confident he would have done that."
• CNN reports that in 2020, the League of Conservation Voters gave Zeldin the worst score on environmental issues out of New York's congressional delegation. He did, however, vote against a Republican measure to slash EPA funding.

(More President-elect Trump stories.)