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lee zeldin
Critics Warn Trump Picks for EPA and Interior Would Only Serve Billionaire Polluters
Climate advocates are sounding the alarm over nominees Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin.
Jan 16, 2025
As Republican-controlled Senate committees held Thursday morning confirmation hearings for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's picks to lead the Department of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency, climate advocates warned that the pair would serve billionaire polluters, endangering the American people, the nation's natural resources, and the planet.
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's choice for interior secretary, appeared before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, while former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, his nominee for EPA administrator, met with the chamber's Committee on Environment and Public Works.
"Doug Burgum, the billionaire governor of North Dakota, bought his way into Trump's orbit by launching a long-shot presidential campaign with his fortune from selling his software company to Microsoft," said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, in a statement. "Burgum is also a real estate and technology investor who leases his own land for oil exploration to Continental Resources, run by close Trump ally Harold Hamm."
As Accountable.US, another watchdog, pointed out, Burgum also leases his land to Hess and "reportedly played a major role in facilitating an infamous meeting at Mar-a-Lago between Donald Trump and a handful of big oil CEOs," including Hamm.
Also highlighting the nominee's reported role in the Florida event "where plutocrats were asked to donate a billion dollars to Trump in exchange for gutting environmental protections," Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, quipped that "if Doug Burgum got any closer to the oil and gas industry, he'd need to wear a hard hat."
"It's clear who would benefit from him running the Department of the Interior," Manuel said. "For more than a century, our national parks and public lands and waters have been part of what makes us special as a country. The incoming Trump administration wants to give those lands and waters away to corporate polluters and billionaires. We need to protect every inch of our public lands from corporate interests and polluters so future generations can explore the treasured lands that connect us all."
Slocum similarly said that "his extensive corporate ties ensure that the Interior Department would be led by a Big Oil lackey who will prioritize the American Petroleum Institute over the American people," and "would open up the door for massive exploitation of the nation's public lands for oil, gas, coal, and mining."
"Trump has named Burgum to lead a new White House energy council, potentially named the National Energy Dominance Council," Slocum noted, citing Politico. He also pointed out that Trump has "given the interior secretary a role on the National Security Council for the first time," warning that the president-elect may use "a bogus national energy emergency" to push dirty energy.
Slocum's colleague David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Climate Program, expressed similar concerns about Zeldin, saying that if allowed to become EPA administrator, he "would turn the agency on its head and run it for the benefit of billionaire polluters at the expense of the American people."
"In Congress, Zeldin voted repeatedly against measures to protect our environment and fix the climate crisis, and Trump says he is counting on Zeldin for 'swift deregulatory decisions,'" Arkush stressed, pointing to Zeldin's pledge "to use the EPA to 'pursue energy dominance.'"
"The U.S. is already the largest producer of petroleum products in history, is the world's largest fossil gas producer, and is exporting gas at record levels," he noted. "What's left to dominate except American families—attacking their health and pocketbooks while setting their homes on fire in pursuit of ever more fossil fuel profits?"
"The Senate should reject Trump's shameful pro-polluter, pro-billionaire, anti-environment, anti-American-people nominees," Arkush argued. Sierra Club legislative director Melinda Pierce also urged senators to reject Zeldin, to "protect the lives and livelihoods of this and all future generations."
"He has failed to adequately address the very real threat climate change poses to our nation as the American people wake each day to more deadly fires, more flooding, and dangerous record temperatures stealing more of our lives and land each day," Pierce said of Zeldin, nodding to the fires raging in California and calling out his record in Congress.
In addition to opposing money for the national flood insurance program and voting to drastically slash EPA funding, "Zeldin has called for the repeal of standards that protect clean air and clean water," she continued. "Him ascending to a role that would allow him to do polluters' bidding from within the agency tasked with administering and enforcing those protections makes him a threat to us all."
After Zeldin's hearing, Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that he "was asked several questions about fossil fuel industry propaganda campaigns, as well as the absurd theories spread by President Trump regarding our environment and the planet. At every turn, Zeldin danced around the questions. It is clear that Zeldin will be a rubber stamp for industry priorities, jeopardizing clean air and water, and driving up costs for everyday families."
Confirmation hearings for Trump's energy & environment teams are this week. Lee Zeldin has promised to eliminate key environmental regulations. Chris Wright is notorious for cherry-picking data to defend the fossil fuel industry. Doug Burgum supports increased fossil fuel drilling.
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— Earthjustice (@earthjustice.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 9:52 AM
This week has featured a flurry of hearings for Trump nominees—including Tuesday events for Fox News host and former Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, the president-elect's pick to lead the Department of Transportation, and Chris Wright, a fracking CEO and promoter of climate disinformation on track to be the next energy secretary.
Duffy and Wright have provoked intense criticism from climate groups—including members of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, who held a protest at Wright's hearing during which 10 campaigners were arrested.
"Zeldin, Burgum, and Wright are unqualified to serve in these critical environmental positions," Allie Rosenbluth, United States program manager at Oil Change International, said last week. "With Zeldin and Burgum each receiving hundreds of thousands in fossil fuel campaign money and Wright's position as a fracking CEO, their loyalties lie with industry profits, not protecting Americans' air, water, climate, and working-class families. These men will choose items off the fossil fuel industry's wishlist over the good of the American people every time."
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Thursday
introduced a bill that would ban former oil, gas, and coal executives or lobbyists from multiple federal posts—including EPA administrator and secretaries of energy, the interior, and transportation—for a decade after leaving their private sector jobs.
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It’s Up to Us to Stop Trump From Selling Our Future to His Billionaire Oil Buddies
Trump is relying on ordinary Americans not noticing he’s throwing them and their planet under the bus because of the chaos he’ll bring.
Dec 01, 2024
During his campaign, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump publicly promised to reward oil and gas executives handsomely in exchange for funding his campaign.
Within weeks of winning the election, he’s making good on his promise by tapping oil and gas executive Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy. Wright has zero experience in running a federal agency. And as The Associated Press reports, he’s “been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change.”
To lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump has picked another crusader against the climate: former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who voted in lockstep with fossil fuel interests during his time in Congress.
If Trump wants to “drill baby, drill,” he could thank Biden for paving the way.
Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans believe climate change is real, human-caused, and needs to be urgently addressed. Trump’s billionaire oil buddies—who will shape national energy policy for the next four years—offer precisely the opposite.
Trump has promised to make fuel and energy more affordable for consumers by steering massive profits to energy producers—but those profits will come at our expense. He’s pledged to end federal subsidies for electric vehicles, even though many Americans want zero-emission vehicles but can’t afford them yet. And he’s vowed to bring gas prices under $2 a gallon—a wild claim that economists don’t buy.
Oil profits and production are already sky-high under President Joe Biden and haven’t led to lower gas prices.
Indeed, Biden has been more of a friend to oil and gas than to climate justice groups. In spite of the White House’s boasts about historic climate policies, Biden’s actions have been relatively toothless. Among them are setting goals posts to reduce emissions years from now—anywhere between 2030 and 2050—well after he leaves office.
He’s touted his signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, as a historic victory for the climate. The law did make significant climate investments, but the majority of it tinkered around the edges of what’s truly needed. And it ended up giving away billions to the fossil fuel industry for unproven technologies such as “carbon capture.”
Indeed, if Trump wants to “drill baby, drill,” he could thank Biden for paving the way.
Biden has overseen the transformation of the U.S. into one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, both during his presidency and during the Obama years, when he was vice president. According to the Energy Department, the U.S. has “produced more crude oil than any nation at any time… for the past six years in a row.”
So the last thing the fossil fuel industry needs is more favors.
Consumers will pay the price if Trump makes EVs and renewable energy more expensive, lets oil companies dismantle regulations, and accelerates the climate crisis. But he’s relying on ordinary Americans not noticing he’s throwing them and their planet under the bus because of the chaos he’ll bring with mass deportations, anti-LGBT bigotry, and other madness.
With the time he has left, Biden could still declare climate change a national emergency—a step many environmental groups are begging him to take, but which he’s resisted throughout his presidency. They’re also calling on him to stop the expansion of export infrastructure for liquefied natural gas.
If Biden wants to make any sort of claim to be a climate champion, he’ll take those steps. But ultimately, it will be up to the rest of us to watch what Trump is doing and fight for better climate policies in our own states and communities.
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Campaigners Demand 'Biden Make a Final Stand' for Climate Before Trump Takeover
"Trump is not in office yet, and the Democrats have the power to do so much more in the coming weeks to stand up to this fossil fuel agenda, and we need them to seize this moment," said one campaigner.
Nov 17, 2024
With the clock winding down on President Joe Biden's tenure and the dark cloud of Republican President-elect Donald Trump's imminent administration looming, activists rallied Sunday in Washington, D.C. to demand that the Biden administration "use every tool possible to make progress on climate justice" while there's still time.
Under the rallying call "Biden make a final stand, fossil fuels destroy this land," members and allies of groups including the Green New Deal Network, 350.org, Center for Biological Diversity, Fridays for Future USA, Extinction Rebellion D.C., Sunrise D.C., Oil Change International, Food & Water Watch, and others gathered outside the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—which will be run by fracking champion Lee Zeldin if Trump's nominee is confirmed by what will be a Republican-controlled Senate.
"The stakes could not be higher. Donald Trump and his fossil fuel allies are about to take control of the White House, doubling down on dirty energy policies that are destroying our planet and our communities," Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh told attendees of Sunday's protest. "We will not stand by idly and watch them put the profits of fossil fuel companies above the health and well-being of our communities."
"Trump is not in office yet, and the Democrats have the power to do so much more in the coming weeks to stand up to this fossil fuel agenda, and we need them to seize this moment," Walsh continued. "We know the truth: To protect our communities, we must phase out fossil fuels. No more drilling! No more pipelines! No more permits! We need bold action on climate, and we need it now!"
In addition to calling on congressional Democrats to reject a permitting reform bill introduced earlier this year by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that critics have linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Walsh called the proposed legislation—which has previously been derided as Manchin's "dirty deal"—a "giveaway to the fossil fuel industry masquerading as some sort of bipartisan energy solution."
"In reality, this bill will clear the way for decades of pollution and climate chaos," Walsh added. "It will poison communities for the profits of fossil fuel interests. This will do nothing except forward Donald Trump and the Project 2025 agenda."
Walsh also called on Biden to reject half a dozen permits related to the export of liquefied natural gas.
The rally coalition is calling on Biden to take the following action during the remaining 63 days of his administration:
- Declare climate change a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act;
- Declare climate change a national emergency under the Stafford Act;
- Redirect all agency funds towards renewable energy and away from fossil fuels to build back fossil-free in impacted communities; and
- Establish high labor standards to protect workers against extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and other climate emergencies through strong Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations.
"President Biden has the power to act today," Walsh stressed.
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