Lee Zeldin emphasizes accountability in EPA confirmation hearing, says he’ll 'look into' IRA funds

He agreed to review distributions under the signature Biden climate law.

January 16, 2025, 5:23 PM

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head up the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, emphasized accountability during hours of testimony on Thursday and said he would "look into" and potentially "claw back" funds dispersed under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The IRA is one of President Joe Biden's signature accomplishments and provides significant funding for combating climate change and expanding clean energy production.

"The EPA must be better stewards of tax dollars, honor cooperative federalism and be transparent and accountable to Congress and the public," Zeldin said during his opening statement before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "We can and we must protect our precious environment without suffocating the economy."

Zeldin said part of that accountability is a commitment to "look into" the dispersal of IRA funds at the request of Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.

Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency testifies at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, in Washington, Jan. 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

During his questioning, Ricketts took aim at the Biden administration's EPA, emphasizing that there was no additional funding for oversight of IRA spending by the agency's inspector general under the climate law. The Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General's Autumn 2024 "Oversight Report" said that $10 million was allocated in the IRA "to oversee the DOI's management of these funds."

"Can we have your commitment that you will look into this to make sure those dollars were spent appropriately, that the process was followed properly for all those dollars?" Ricketts asked. "[And] if they weren't being distributed, you'll work to claw back those taxpayer dollars?"

"Yes, senator," Zeldin replied. Zeldin notably voted against the IRA when he was a sitting member of Congress.

Out on the campaign trail, Trump said he would work to rescind IRA funds -- a campaign pledge that not all Republicans support. In August, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., asking him to protect the funds.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., followed up on Ricketts' line of questioning shortly afterward, saying he hopes Zeldin won't conduct a "witch hunt" over IRA funds -- many of which, he noted, were distributed in Republican districts.

"I can only assume, as I sit here, that upon review that there will be -- I will find out about all sorts of funding that went out the door that was following the law as written by Congress," Zeldin replied, again emphasizing accountability. "I just want to be in a position to account to all of you."

PHOTO: Lee Zeldin
Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP

When asked by Ricketts to "roll back" the vehicle standards put in place earlier this year by Biden's EPA, Zeldin said he couldn't commit to making that happen.

"I am not allowed to prejudge outcomes going into rulemaking to ensure that there is durability of any decision to be made at the end of the process where my answer to that question could potentially be used against any type of a rule or regulation that is made," he said, though he noted concern about the standards he'd heard from Ricketts and others.

Trump has been critical of Biden's handling of the auto industry and is widely expected to roll back the Biden administration's new vehicle emissions standards.

The Biden EPA standards, which represent dramatic reductions in allowable tailpipe emissions from newly manufactured vehicles, are said to be "technology agnostic" but do put pressure on the auto industry to ramp up electric vehicle production.

Democrats on the hearing committee, including ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., expressed concern over how a Zeldin-led EPA would address climate change in its rulemakings.

"President Trump has called climate change a hoax," Whitehouse said, before referencing a Mar-a-Lago meeting earlier this year in which Trump allegedly offered fossil fuel industry executives favorable regulations in exchange for campaign donations.

"The question, then, for Mr. Zeldin here before us as President Trump's nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency is simple: Will he follow the science and the economics and protect our air, water and climate, or will he merely be a rubber stamp for looters and polluters who are setting the Trump agenda?" he asked.

Zeldin noted during his testimony that he believes climate change is real. But amid questioning from Whitehouse about whether he believes the United States needs to reduce its emissions to address climate change, Zeldin said U.S. emissions have been going down over the last couple of decades.

"Senator, United States emissions have been going down over the course of the last couple of decades," Zeldin said. "Unfortunately, there are other countries where it is not going in the same direction, and I would say that we will have never done enough to ensure that our water and our air is clean, safe and healthy. Whatever we do every day to achieve this objective, we need to wake up the next day looking for ways to do more."

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