Environmental Destruction Agency

Spectator

In an essay in The Wall Street Journal, he said he wants to “... drive a dagger through the heart of climate change religion and usher in America’s Golden Age...”

Of course, that was a CEO of a fossil fuel or petrochemical conglomerate, right? No, that was Lee Zeldin, the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and he made those comments after he accepted the position.

A former member of Congress and failed gubernatorial candidate in New York, Zeldin appears to have neither the instinct nor intent to protect the environment. He sees his job as furthering corporate interests and rewriting EPA rules and regulations that most benefit businesses, the environment be damned.

All 53 Republicans voted to confirm his nomination, and that would have been enough, but three Democrats—John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly from Arizona—joined with affirmative votes. (We have to assume Gallego and Kelly believe Zeldin will somehow enhance their share of Colorado River water, a fight ongoing in Arizona and other Colorado River states for more than a quarter century.)

Zeldin, in his first “official” address, said he intends to cut EPA spending by a whopping 65 percent and will roll back or eliminate at least 31 environmental regulations, including those that restrict emissions from coal-fired power plants, regulate vehicle emissions, restrict the emission of toxins like mercury, restrict soot pollution, so-called good neighbor rules that regulate downwind pollution, and clean water laws currently defining and protecting rivers, streams and wetlands. Funding for the Great Lakes might be in their crosshairs, too.

He says it will be part of his agenda to “restore America’s energy dominance.” That is not now and never has been part of the job description of the administrator of the EPA, whose primary responsibility, and this is apparently a shock to Zeldin, is protecting the environment.

The government has ample departments furthering corporate and business interests, and there are literally thousands of various chambers of commerce, nonprofits, and non-government organizations (NGO) doing the same. And, by the way, the United States is already the world’s leading producer of both oil and natural gas.

Perhaps most disturbing is Zeldin’s expressed desire to rewrite his agency’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gasses endanger public health and well-being. Once that is undone, there is no longer justification for limiting the emission of greenhouse gasses.

This is straight from the pages of Project 2025, which recommended exactly the rollbacks we’re now hearing about along with a claim consumers will realize more affordable homes, vehicles, utility bills, and food. If we allow more air pollution, it is quite likely we will also realize more illness and death, especially among the very young, very old, and very poor.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which keeps statistics on all mortality and illness rates, says air pollution is the second leading cause of death worldwide ranking behind only high blood pressure. The World Health Organization (WHO), from which we recently withdrew in a snit because of their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, attributes seven million deaths annually to air pollution.

According to research published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, 100,000 deaths in the U.S. are the result of poor air quality.

Environmental Health News reports that 40 percent of our country is already being negatively impacted, or is at risk of being negatively impacted, by poor air quality, which in turn can increase all pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions and illnesses plus nearly all cancers.

The list of potential negative health impacts from poor air quality is very, very long. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), air pollution disproportionately affects poorer neighborhoods and communities because polluting industries tend to locate where there are fewer resources to oppose them. But virtually every aspect of our health is dependent on clean air, and we count on the EPA helping to achieve that standard and keep it that way. Lee Zeldin and his EPA have different ideas.

Zeldin and others in this administration keep claiming they inherited an economy so terrible drastic measures are needed to save it. The president has at various times referred to the economy as a “mess,” “train wreck,” “disaster,” and “nightmare,” thoughts Zeldin has echoed.

In fact, when Trump took office the Consumer Price Index was 3.0 percent, unemployment was 4.0 percent, both of which leave room for improvement but neither of which is close to disastrous. (Inflation at or below 4 percent for 30 straight months was the best in 50 years.) We had 48 straight months of job gains, real income made gains, and the stock market reached record highs. Biden’s pandemic-recovery spending spree created or at least bolstered inflation, but it’s also true we avoided a post-pandemic recession.

Despoiling our environment won’t make anything better, no matter what Lee Zeldin thinks.

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