EPA nominee Lee Zeldin has support from the American Trucking Association...

EPA nominee Lee Zeldin has support from the American Trucking Association and the Western Energy Alliance. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.

WASHINGTON — Former Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin will face tough questions from Democrats about his fitness to be the EPA administrator at a Senate hearing Thursday, but he appears to be on a path to confirmation.

Zeldin, 44, of Shirley, a four-term House member from Suffolk County until 2023, was tapped in November by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Environmental Protection Agency despite his lack of a scientific background and limited environmental issue credentials.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that will open the hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday, said Zeldin will get a swift confirmation. Republicans hold a majority with 10 seats on the 19-member committee.

Political analysts say they do not expect Democrats to try to block the nomination.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

  • Former Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin will face tough questions from Democrats about his fitness to be the EPA administrator at a Senate hearing Thursday, but he appears to be on a path to confirmation.
  • Zeldin was a four-term House member from Suffolk County until 2023 and was tapped in November by President-elect Donald Trump for the top EPA job despite his lack of a scientific background.
  • Environmentalist groups have decried the appointment, pointing out Zeldin's 14% voting score by the League of Conservation Voters and his vote in Trump’s first term for an amendment to cut the EPA budget by $2 billion.

"Former congressman Zeldin may not exactly be qualified for the job, but absent a stunning series of events I expect that he will be confirmed," said political consultant Jim Manley, who was a top adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"The political reality is that Senate Democrats have only so much bandwidth to go after Trump's nominees," Manley told Newsday. "And since he is not seen as being nearly as threatening as some of the others, I think he will skate by with some Democratic votes."

Green opposition

Zeldin sent a message to business and industry when Trump announced him as his choice to run the EPA in the week after winning the election.

"We will restore U.S. energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the U.S. the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water," Zeldin posted on the social media site X.

National environmentalist groups have decried the appointment, pointing out Zeldin's 14% voting score on environmental legislation by the League of Conservation Voters and his vote in Trump’s first term for an amendment to cut the EPA budget by $2 billion.

"If we want to protect clean air, clean water and 1.7 million clean jobs, we need to fight for the EPA. That starts with rejecting Zeldin, and demanding a leader who will protect our environment — and all of us — from polluters," Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous wrote in a recent op-ed.

Among the groups supporting Zeldin’s nomination are the American Trucking Associations, which seeks "achievable" emissions standards, and the Western Energy Alliance, which backs drilling for oil and natural gas.

Likely issues

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said she will watch for Zeldin’s answers to questions about strong drinking water standards, protection of Long Island’s three estuaries and the Atlantic Ocean, and on addressing climate change by transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

"We have a climate crisis. We need to battle that crisis," Esposito said. "That’s the heart of the battle."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s ranking member, said Tuesday he would not "telegraph" his questions for Zeldin in advance.

But Whitehouse has questioned whether Zeldin will simply carry out whatever Trump wants him to do. "Wouldn’t any rational person be concerned about that?" Whitehouse said when Newsday asked about that issue. "We’ll see how he performs in the hearing."

Zeldin will be asked about his lack of environmental background for an agency driven by complex scientific, technical and legal issues, though last week Trump named David Fotouhi, a veteran of the EPA general counsel’s office in Trump’s first term, as EPA deputy director.

Democrats are expected to ask Zeldin about his voting record on environment issues in Congress. Jealous pointed to his vote against curbing methane pollution, for weakening soot regulations, supporting Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut emissions and voting to stop the United States' role in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Zeldin might also face questions about his report as a nominee to the Office of Government Ethics of his earnings since he left Congress and ran unsuccessfully for New York governor.

Since the start of 2023, Zeldin made a total of $775,000 in salary income, between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his firm Zeldin Consulting, $144,999 from the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Works, $120,500 from right-learning groups for writing op-eds and $45,475 from gambling at the Golden Nugget, Venetian and Atlantis casinos, Zeldin reported to the Office of Government Ethics.

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          'A basis for somebody to bring a lawsuit' A Newsday investigation found Hempstead Town issued 80,000 school bus camera tickets in districts that did not authorize the program. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie and Newsday investigative reporter Payton Guion have the story.

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