Lee Zeldin has been confirmed as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate confirmed the appointment 56-42 on Wednesday.
Zeldin, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2023, will take the helm of an agency that the Trump administration has vowed to take in a different direction than the Biden administration. The EPA is responsible for a wide range of issues relevant to agriculture, including oversight of pesticides, water regulation and biofuels.
Zeldin’s supporters see him as the right fit for prioritizing economic growth while still protecting the environment. Democrats who opposed the nomination say Zeldin is too aligned with oil and gas company interests that could exacerbate climate change.
“We will take great strides to defend every American’s access to clean air, clean water, and clean land,” Zeldin said in a statement issued after his confirmation. “We will maintain and expand the gold standard of environmental stewardship and conservation that President Trump set forth in his first administration while also prioritizing economic prosperity.”
During a confirmation hearing Jan. 16, Zeldin said he would work with longtime EPA staff, as well as Republicans and Democrats, to familiarize himself with important environmental issues, especially as they impact the U.S. economy. He said he would prioritize compliance and help the agency “be better stewards of tax dollars.”
“We can, and we must, protect our precious environment without suffocating the economy,” he said. “A big part of this will require building private sector collaboration to promote common sense, smart regulation that will allow American innovation to continue to lead the world.”
Agriculture groups applauded Zeldin’s confirmation, lauding his approach to deregulation and his support for extending year-round access to E15.
“For too long, the EPA has stood for ‘Ending Production Agriculture,’” Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said in a statement. “Under Administrator Zeldin, we look forward to an EPA that acknowledges the conservation efforts that are only made possible by cattle farmers and ranchers—America’s original conservationists.”
In the immediate days after Zeldin’s appointment, the agency will need to sort through new and shifting priorities, including those related to numerous executive orders Trump issued in his first week of office, such as ending a greenhouse gas emissions working group and withdrawing a pending rule for setting discharge limits on certain PFAS. The EPA will also need to review numerous federal actions related to greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and climate change policies, among other topics.
The EPA under Zeldin is also expected to reverse course on a previous goal of centering environmental justice, which was a major priority of the agency under the previous administrator, Michael Regan. The White House’s environmental justice information page has since been taken down.
The Trump administration has also hit the ground running with naming other EPA political appointees, many of whom are former oil and chemical industry lobbyists. Aaron Szabo, who helped write the EPA chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, is expected to lead the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation.
Nancy Beck is also reportedly returning to the agency as a senior adviser on chemical safety and pollution. During the first Trump administration, her actions demanding revisions to the science on cancer risk slowed the EPA's ability to rule on PFOA risk standards, according to the New York Times. Beck was previously a senior director with the American Chemistry Council.
The Trump administration has chosen David Fotouhi as the EPA’s deputy administrator. He previously served as the agency’s acting general counsel during Trump’s first term.
The administration has not yet named an assistant administrator nominee for the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, a role that is closely related to federal waste and recycling industry policy. That includes managing grant funding for recycling projects and overseeing certain Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery and other land remediation matters. The Biden administration did not name an official assistant administrator for that OLEM position after the previous nominee, Carlton Waterhouse, announced he would leave the agency.
Both the deputy administrator and the OLEM roles require Senate confirmation.
Sarah Zimmerman contributed to this story.
