Trump’s decide to guide EPA says company licensed, not required to control CO2

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s decide to guide the Environmental Safety Company on Thursday stated he believes local weather change is actual and a risk however that the company he’s poised to supervise is simply licensed, not required, to control carbon dioxide emissions.

Former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, talking at his Senate affirmation listening to, stated a 2007 determination by the Supreme Courtroom gave the company statutory authority to control the heat-trapping greenhouse gasoline however didn’t obligate the EPA to take motion.

Zeldin instructed the listening to that he believes local weather change is actual, a departure from his predecessors who led the EPA throughout the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2020 and from Trump himself, who has repeatedly known as local weather change a hoax.

“I consider that local weather change is actual,” he instructed the committee, however didn’t reply on to questions on whether or not the U.S. wants to scale back its reliance on fossil fuels, a significant driver of carbon emissions.

The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden had prioritized local weather insurance policies and tied them to financial progress and job creation. Trump has vowed to roll again the Biden administration’s climate-focused agenda, together with EPA rules geared toward slashing carbon dioxide, methane and different emissions from vehicles, energy vegetation and different industrial sources.

Zeldin stated he favored an method that favors all power sources and careworn in his opening assertion that the incoming administration has a mandate from American voters to guard the setting, however with out harming financial progress.

“The American individuals elected President Trump final November partly as a result of severe issues about upward financial mobility and their battle to make ends meet,” Zeldin stated. “We will, and we should, defend our treasured setting with out suffocating the financial system.”

Zeldin touted his report specializing in defending the Lengthy Island Sound in addition to his assist for bipartisan laws to wash up ocean plastic.

The Republican, who represented a bit of New York’s Lengthy Island, typically voted in opposition to laws on inexperienced points together with a measure to cease oil firms from value gouging.

In his closing yr in Congress in 2022, Zeldin earned a 5% score by the League of Conservation Voters scorecard that tracks the voting data of members of Congress on environmental points.

All through the listening to, Democratic senators pressed Zeldin on local weather change and sought assurances that he wouldn’t collapse to stress from fossil gas and different business teams that wish to ease rules on air and water.

Watchdog teams have flagged that Zeldin’s consulting agency had been paid to put in writing op-eds on environmental insurance policies for fossil gas firms and pursuits.

Zeldin rejected the suggestion that he could possibly be influenced by particular pursuits.

“There isn’t a one who has each offered any degree of assist to me…who has any particular affect with me,” he stated.

One of many prime targets of business teams and Trump is the EPA’s clear car guidelines, which goal to chop tailpipe emissions by 50% from 2026 ranges by 2032 and encourage the shift to extra electrical autos, in addition to the company’s approval of California’s even stricter clear automobile mandate.

When requested whether or not he would transfer to rescind these guidelines, Zeldin stated it was too early to say.

“I plan on following my obligations below the regulation to make sure that all through my tenure, if confirmed as EPA Administrator, that I by no means prejudge outcomes heading into that course of,” he stated.