BELTRAN: From PRX and the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios at the University of Massachusetts Boston, this is Living on Earth. I’m Paloma Beltran.

DOERING: And I’m Jenni Doering.

There’s a new sheriff in town at the Environmental Protection Agency now that President Trump’s pick, Lee Zeldin, has been confirmed by the Senate as EPA Administrator.

BELTRAN: To get a bit of perspective on this choice, we reached out to Marianne Lavelle, the Washington bureau chief of our media partner Inside Climate News. Marianne, welcome to Living on Earth!

LAVELLE: Hi Paloma, hi Jenni, thanks for having me.

DOERING: Hi Marianne. So, give us a bit of background for Lee Zeldin. Who was he before he was appointed to this post?

LAVELLE: Lee Zeldin is a former Congressman for New York’s first district on Long Island, and he’s a lawyer and a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq. He got his start in politics in the New York State Senate in 2011, and he ran for governor of New York in 2022. And although he lost, he did very well for a Republican in that blue state and a big part of his platform was that he wanted to open New York up to fracking.

BELTRAN: Hm. Sounds that might be one of the reasons that President Trump wanted him to lead the EPA.

LAVELLE: I would think so. After that run, Zeldin traveled with Trump on the campaign trail including in the key state of Pennsylvania - where, of course, fracking is a big deal.

DOERING: Of course. So, it sounds like he’s pretty pro-fossil fuel, but what has Lee Zeldin said about climate change?

LAVELLE: Well, he affirmed during his confirmation hearing that he believes climate change is real. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pushed Zeldin, asking him if he would describe the changing climate as “an existential threat.” And Zeldin did say that he felt there needed to be an urgency in addressing these issues.

BELTRAN: Well, he could take climate change on at EPA, so what did he talk about doing in these hearings?

LAVELLE: This is where things get more complicated. Zeldin said he believed the Supreme Court gave EPA the authority to act on climate by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. But he said the court did not give the EPA any obligation, or any mandate to act. Here’s Lee Zeldin at his hearing in response to Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

ZELDIN: Senator, I just want to be accurate and in citing Massachusetts v. EPA, the decision does not require the EPA, it authorizes the EPA.

MARKEY: It says you’re obligated; you’re obligated to regulate if you find there’s an endangerment.

ZELDIN: If.

DOERING: Huh. What exactly does he mean by that?

LAVELLE: Well, in that famous 2007 case Zeldin is talking about, the Supreme Court said greenhouse gases fit the definition of pollutants under the Clean Air Act. But it wasn’t until the Obama administration, in 2009, that the EPA made a finding that greenhouse gas pollution was a danger to human health and the environment. That endangerment finding is what gives the EPA an obligation to act on climate.
And now that finding is a target of the Trump administration, picking up on a goal of Project 2025.

BELTRAN: And you know, the endangerment finding has been unsuccessfully challenged several times before. So, what makes Trump officials think they’ll succeed?

LAVELLE: Well, hard to say, because the finding has stood up against legal challenges for 16 years. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has twice denied such attempts and even the conservative majority Supreme Court has not been willing to touch it. There are procedures in the Clean Air Act that essentially block unraveling the endangerment finding. And in any event, the evidence on the danger of greenhouse gases to health and the environment is stronger than ever. So, when pressed, Zeldin was trying to wiggle between what the law says and what President Trump is asking him to do.

DOERING: Wait, so since this is such a big deal, this wouldn’t just affect EPA, I’m guessing it would impact basically every action in the federal government related to greenhouse gas pollutants.

LAVELLE: That’s right, the Trump White House is attempting to roll back all kinds of federal policies that touch climate pollution, on energy, housing, public lands, you name it.

BELTRAN: So, Marianne, besides climate, what other environmental issues will Lee Zeldin oversee?

LAVELLE: So far, the Trump White House expects Zeldin to disband the EPA Office of Environmental Justice, and power companies have already pushed Zeldin to get rid of toxic coal ash rules. By the way, the deputy administrator President Trump picked to work with Zeldin, David Fotouhi, was the general counsel for the EPA in the first Trump administration. And he’s been waiting in the wings in private practice, trying to fight an asbestos ban.

BELTRAN: Okay, so Fotouhi may get the job with the EPA, but what about the employment situation for others there?

LAVELLE: You know, Paloma, on January 29th, that’s the day Zeldin took the helm, emails started going out to EPA employees who had been in their current roles for less than a year, saying that they could be terminated immediately.

DOERING: Yeah, I saw that was sent to over a thousand so-called “probationary” employees, which included tenured employees who had moved to a new position in the past year.

LAVELLE: It definitely seems that the EPA is in a state of turmoil. There’s also the deferred resignation offer that was sent to all federal employees at the same time. So, this is going to be a difficult time for EPA while trying to navigate those waters and make all these massive policy decisions.

DOERING: Well, we’ll keep an eye on the actions taken by this Trump EPA, and we’ll talk to you again soon, Marianne, to look at a few other cabinet picks.

BELTRAN: Thanks so much, Marianne, we’ll talk soon.

LAVELLE: Thanks Jenni, thanks Paloma.

DOERING: Marianne Lavelle is the Washington bureau chief of Inside Climate News.