Trump’s Next EPA Administrator Is a Lawyer, Not an Environmentalist
President-elect Donald Trump is picking former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R–N.Y.) to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in his next administration. The pick came as a surprise to many who expected Andrew Wheeler, Trump’s former EPA administrator, to lead the agency again, according to the Washington Examiner. While not considered an energy and environmental policy wonk, Zeldin could bring a fresh perspective to the EPA and reduce the scope of an agency that has become a behemoth that regularly oversteps its statutory authority.
In June, the Supreme Court struck down the Chevron doctrine. This decades-old precedent forced courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of ambiguous laws, which empowered agencies to implement broad, overreaching regulations. The June decision means that bureaucrats must act within the authority given to them by Congress. In a post-Chevron world, where any changes to Joe Biden–era regulations must pass legal muster, Zeldin’s “governance and legal expertise will make for a successful tenure at the EPA,” Nick Loris, the vice president of public policy at C3 Solutions, a free market energy think tank, tells Reason.
The Biden administration’s greenhouse gas power plant rule will likely come under fire. Finalized this year, this directive forces all coal plants (except those that will cease operating by 2032) and new natural gas turbines to capture 90 percent of their greenhouse emissions by 2032. The cost of this regulation will drastically outweigh the perceived environmental benefits, according to David Kemp, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. The Supreme Court has allowed the rule to stand as it is litigated in lower courts.
Rule making and programs by the EPA, especially in the past four years, have rewarded politically favored technologies and special interests. In March, the agency finalized a tailpipe emissions rule whose stringent regulations equate to a de facto ban on internal combustion vehicles. The top-down mandate denies consumer choice—many drivers don’t want an electric vehicle—and will increase costs, especially for low- and middle-income families.
Meanwhile, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund passed in the Inflation Reduction Act gives the EPA $27 billion to dole out to nonprofits and state governments fo
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