It’s incredible sometimes how much the liberal legacy media runs cover for the far-leftist environmental wing of the Democrat Party.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator and former Republican NY congressman Lee Zeldin came up against just the latest example of this activist “journalism” run amok, when “Face The Nation” guest host Weija Jiang tried on Sunday to spring a “gotcha” question on the Trump administration’s deregulation plans possibly hurting the environment.
You can practically hear the gears in her head turning, as she thinks she’s got the Republican cornered, reciting from a partial listing of “31 deregulatory actions” the EPA took in just one day in March–on what they termed the most momentous day in the history of the EPA. She should have known better, considering Zeldin’s prior remarks on “environmental justice” over the past four years.
Jiang continues: (emphasis added)
That’s a long list, but some of the things that stood out are, you’re reconsidering regulations on power plants, on mercury and air Toxic Standards that target coal-fired power plants and on wastewater regulations for the development of oil and gas. The mission statement of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. Can you assure the American public that all this deregulation is not going to have an adverse impact on people and the environment?
Zeldin was ready for the attempted trap move, though, and zinging the Biden administration for how it used activism on the environment to “[target] entire industries” in our country–while contrasting what this administration’s goal is:
“Absolutely, we have to both protect the environment and grow the economy. It’s what the American people demanding- demanding of us,” Administrator Zeldin said.”They want us to make sure that we are applying common sense.”
He continued, spelling out the very real connection between paring back these regulations and the damage that was inflicted on the U.S. economy that affects Americans’ every day lives:
Over the course of the last couple years of the Biden administration, there were a lot of regulations that were brought over the finish line that were targeting entire industries. And when the American public went to vote last November, they were talking about economic concerns, about struggling to make ends meet. That includes the cost of being able to heat their home. The choice of whether or not to be able to heat their home or fill up their fridge with groceries or afford prescription medication. The ability to get jobs.
Zeldin added that his office has also been told by American business owners that Biden just made the cost of doing business too burdensome:
What we’ve also heard are the costs of compliance, which amount into the trillions and what that does to the American economy as well. So going into this process, I don’t prejudge outcomes- not allowed to under the Administrative Procedures Act. We will have a process that includes public comment, and we would encourage the public to weigh in when they have that opportunity.
The host wasn’t done , though, in her crusade, bringing up the judge’s stay on the district court’s order that the Trump EPA “unfreeze” $20 billion in funds that Team Biden had ready to go to clean energy grants. Zeldin was off to the races in his thorough answer:
I’m glad you pointed out that the circuit court then stopped what the district court was saying. So, self-dealing and conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients, lack of sufficient EPA oversight, these were all concerns that we had. First were- had the alarm raised when a Biden EPA political appointee in December was on video saying that they were tossing gold bars off the Titanic, rushing to get billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day. And also said, with an eye towards getting themselves jobs at recipient NGOs. So for example, as it relates to unqualified recipients, there was one recipient NGO that only received $100 in 2023, they got $2 billion in 2024. They also have in their grant agreement requirement to complete a training in 90 days called “how to develop a budget.” They were amending the account control agreements days before the inauguration, reducing EPA oversight.
READ MORE: Trump Halts $3 Trillion in Federal Grants Pending Review of Compliance With His Executive Orders
Zeldin again had more than enough receipts–about the radical judges and the Biden corruption–causing Jiang to cry uncle and quickly end the interview:
ZELDIN: Now this is one of the problems with district court judges across this entire country. They were not elected President of the United States. It is important for us to be able to fulfill our constitutional duties, to follow our statutory obligations, and it is important to be a responsible steward of tax dollars. But what shouldn’t happen is ignore all of the evidence and then just say, there is no evidence. The 39-page opinion of the district court doesn’t even reference any of that. And if we had more time and you said, hey Lee, why don’t you provide for me 15 more examples of evidence right now, and it’s up to you. I don’t know how much time you have. But I could just keep going of all the evidence and talk about self dealing, conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients and reduced oversight.
WEIJIA JIANG: Administrator, I will get that from your team, and I appreciate it. We will also be watching that case as it unfolds closely. Thank you so much, and Happy Easter to you.
Yoou can’t help but crack up at something like that. And as Zeldin said, this is exactly what the American people voted for when they gave Trump another term. Either way, you love to see the propagandists pedaling as fast as they can to make it seem like a bad thing–and failing miserably.
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