(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump handed another high-level appointment in his administration to a local ex-lawmaker from his home state of New York on Monday afternoon.
Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., whose 2022 run came close to toppling incumbent Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, will be the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump announced in a statement.
The 44-year-old Army reservist and lawyer affiliated himself with several environmental-related caucuses while serving in the House. That included the Congressional Estuary Caucus, the Conservative Climate Caucus and the Climate Solutions Caucus, according to his Wikipedia page.
Zeldin will likely play a significant role in one of the centerpieces of Trump’s agenda—the revitalization of American energy production.
“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump said in the statement.
“He 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 president-elect added. “He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”
During Trump’s first term, the country flourished in large part due to the deregulatory measures that helped it to achieve energy independence for the first time in decades—even allowing the export of energy to other nations.
The Biden administration quickly reined it in, however, shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline and implementing other severe restrictions on fossil fuels and other energy sources deemed to have an environmental impact. Instead, the Democrat president earmarked billions on wasteful green-energy projects, many of which sputtered and failed, including a push to incentivize electric vehicles.
Trump pointed out on the campaign trail that Biden’s policies, which instead relied on importing energy from other nations, many of which maintained adversarial relationships with the U.S., actually harmed the environment since America’s energy production was considered to be among the cleanest.
Zeldin was the fifth high-profile addition to Trump’s administration, which will also include chief-of-staff Susie Wiles, border czar Tom Homan, UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik and deputy policy director Jason Miller.
Trump has signaled an urgency to get top appointments made quickly in order to hit the ground running when he takes over on Jan. 20 of next year, even signaling to the incoming GOP majority in the Senate that he expected no delays in confirmation from Democrat fillibuster attempts.
He strategically decided to form a privately-funded transition team, led by former Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon, to prevent any government influence on the process that might lead to moles and resistance operatives from within the deep state being installed in key policymaking spots.
Like Zeldin, Stefanik is a House member from New York. Although she won her 2024 reelection with 62.5% of the vote, making it a safe Republican seat in the deep-blue state, it remains to be seen whether Zeldin’s former campaign rival, Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, will name an interim appointee to fill the seat or if it will remain vacant until a special election can determine the outcome.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
