Lee Zeldin highlights economic, environmental role of EPA on Long Island 

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin said Friday the agency would push to build a natural gas pipeline in New York, make it easier to get permits to build on wetlands and cancel programs aimed at curbing climate change in order to boost economic opportunity.

Zeldin, a former Shirley congressman, outlined his priorities during a breakfast discussion in Woodbury held by the Long Island Association, a nonprofit business organization, titled "Protecting our Environment, Unlocking Economic Prosperity."

He said the EPA would "fulfill its statutory obligations" on environmental regulation. 

"It doesn't matter whether you're conservative, moderate, liberal, a Republican, Democrat or independent — especially here on Long Island, we care about having clean air, land and water," he said.

Zeldin was met with about 100 protesters Friday morning outside Crest Hollow Country Club.

"I’m very concerned about our environment and what’s happening under the Trump administration," Michael Kornfeld, 65, from Huntington, said as he stood among the protesters. "And I believe we really need to do everything we can to protect our water and our air."

Zeldin on Friday said "permitting reform" was a priority of the president and raised a 2023 Supreme Court decision which removed federal protection from vast acres of freshwater wetlands. He said the EPA would now work to ensure that the rules on wetlands were "so durable" that they could not be reversed by a new administration.

He said the president had "made it crystal clear" that no new permits for wind power would be issued "right now." Long Island has several offshore wind permits still pending.

He called himself "a proponent of building more pipelines" for natural gas, such as the Constitutional Pipeline, a 124-mile liquefied natural gas pipeline that would run from Pennsylvania to New York, as the administration negotiates with Gov. Kathy Hochul.

New York State fracking a long time ago, but expanded the ban last year.

Zeldin said he heard from Senate Republicans and Democrats during his confirmation process frustration that water suppliers and ultimately consumers are saddled with the costs of cleaning contaminated drinking water. And he said some communities will struggle to pay to comply with drinking water standards. 

He repeated his intention to cancel $20 billion in grants intended to curb climate change, claiming that the program has been "riddled" with fraud and abuse, and grants for environmental justice projects.

Zeldin has previously said he plans to cut 65% of the EPA budget and is seeking to fire thousands of EPA scientists and other employees. He said Friday that he was working with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to determine the right number of employees in the EPA.

Speaking to reporters after the event, Zeldin said no decision had been made yet on whether the EPA would maintain the strict limits on PFAS in drinking water established last year by the Biden administration. He said more research on PFAS was in order, but that "the status quo" wasn’t necessarily the correct way forward.