The Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm that Lee Zeldin would operate the Environmental Protection Agency. You will be accused of President Trump's major environmental regulations and perhaps an order to dismantle part of the 55 -year -old organization itself.
The Senate voted 56 to 42 to confirm Zeldin, a former member of the Representative, who has little experience with environmental regulations. He is expected to work to erase the rules to fight climate change and chemical pollution, but a program designed to support poor people and minority communities affected by contamination. Is closed.
Zeldin told the Senate confirmation on January 16 that he had “eagerly supported” the mission of an institution that protects human health and environment, and grasped the basic science of climate change. 。
“We strongly believe that we have a moral responsibility to become a good manager in our environment so that generations come,” he said.
However, Zeldin is also instructed to dismantle the largest climate rules enacted by the federal government. This final rule, which was finalized last year, reduces the tail pipe emissions of greenhouse gas gas, which is the largest source of planetary temperature pollution in Japan, by forcing automakers to increase the sales of hybrids and all -electric vehicles. Masu.
Mr. Trump mistakenly mentions this rule as “EV Mandate”. This rule does not prohibit gas -driven vehicles.
“Lee Zeldin will continue to have the mission of President Trump to roll back the punishment of political regulations,” said Senator Wyoming, a Republican leader on the Senate Floor before the confirmation slip. Ta.
However, in his confirmation hearing, Zeldin told the Senator that he was not allowed to prevent the results of going to the rules. I didn't say if there was.
However, a new Transportation Director Sean Duffy announced a few hours after announcing a plan to weaken the car fuel consumption standard, a friend of EPA emission restrictions. Under the Biden administration, a pair of rules work in cooperation with reducing pollution, and both guarantee that more than half of the new passenger cars sold in the United States by 2032 will be all powerful. I was aiming.
The American Petroleum Research Institute, which represents a large -scale oil company, has called for both rules.
A few weeks after Mr. Trump won the presidential election, the automobile company had made some adjustments, including a decrease in compliance penalties, but requested to maintain some form of vidennal rules. They are struggling with the requirements for rapidly increasing the sales of electric vehicles, but the car manufacturers have invested billions of transition to EVS.
Automakers are afraid that if the rules are erased, they may be covered by companies that sell cheaper and more gas -drive cars. They may also hurt the American competitiveness with China, the world's largest EV manufacturer, and may hurt the industry that is a backbone of the US manufacturing industry and employs 1.1 million people. I am worried that there is.
However, John Bozzella, chairman of the leading Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing the manufacturers of almost all new vehicles sold in the United States, said on Wednesday, “The new leadership of the transportation department will examine the current fuel consumption standards. That's it. ”
Drew Kojack, a vehicle technology and policy expert working at the Biden White House, pointed out that revising the restrictions on tail pipe emissions would take years of legal procedures.
Furthermore, EPA under Zeldin is expected to cancel California's legal authority in order to set a more strict tail pipe limit than the national standard. The state is currently demanding that all new cars sold there must be zero emissions by 2035, and that more than the other 12 states have adopted the same rules.
On Tuesday, the EPA agent Jim Pain was relied on all members of the Scientific Advisory Committee, a major scientific advisory committee, and all members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. As we announced, members are allowed to re -apply.
This movement has a response to both previous Trump and Biden administration, as the role of scientists forming environmental policies has become a political target. During the first Trump administration, several academic scientists were rejected by another EPA panel, scientific counselor committee, and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. The Trump administration has stated that panel scientists, which have been researched by EPA subsidies, cannot objectively emphasize EPA regulations. The first Trump administration has also dissolved the particle -like substance review panel, another scientific committee.
In some cases, the administration replaced these scientists with representatives of the pollution industry regulated by the EPA. At the beginning of the Biden administration, EPA administrator Michael S. Legan was dismissed as a member of the Scientific Integration Committee and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and appointed a new advisor.
From 2011 to 2017, he worked at the EPA Science Advisory Committee and said that marine scholars and psychologists, from 2021 to Tuesday, said he would not re -apply for his status. Ta.
He remembered that the Trump administration was fired with other scientists. “In 2017, I felt there was no plan. I intended to surprise people,” he said. “I feel like there is a plan now.”
