EPA head Lee Zeldin defends axing climate change policies

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin opened a conservative think tank’s climate conference on Wednesday by celebrating the repeal of a key metric for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Zeldin told Heartland Institute’s conference attendees to celebrate vindication from a 2009 endangerment finding that served as the basis of many EPA policies on climate change.

He also characterized the think tank as a front-line group that pushed back on that endangerment finding, which classified carbon dioxide, methane, and four other greenhouse gases as public health threats. President Donald Trump appeared alongside Zeldin in February when reversing the repeal of the Obama-era finding, which served as the basis for regulating emissions from power plants, vehicles, oil refineries, and factories.

Isn’t he supposed to be Trump’s new attorney general? Zeldin is rumored to be a top contender to replace Attorney General Pamela Bondi, whom Trump fired earlier this month. It remains unclear when a new replacement will be formally installed, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is serving as acting attorney general in the meantime.

Dig deeper: Read Jenny Lind Schmitt’s report in WORLD Magazine about developed Western nations barring underdeveloped countries from using cheap fossil fuels that made them rich.