Climate correspondent and man with more frequent flyer miles than you, Bill Weir, joined CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta on Thursday to discuss what President-elect Donald Trump and EPA Administrator nominee Lee Zeldin mean for the environment. Naturally, Weir was quite gloomy, warning “these are such vital years” and worrying if the agency will be “able to hold the line.”
Acosta began, “Bill, what can you tell us about this? Because, I mean, he could have picked a coal industry lobbyist or something like that, but Lee Zeldin?”
After recalling Trump’s previous EPA administrators, Weir dove into Zeldin’s environmental biography:
Lee Zeldin, like all of these picks, a true loyalist, of course voted against the 2020 election certification, sat with Trumps in the box many times. Former New York, from Long Island, put himself, actually, on climate solutions caucuses and estuary committees, because the environment matters very much to folks on Long Island there. But if you look at his voting record, 50 times he voted against climate change legislation, against clean water legislation, eleven times, clean air eight times. The League of Conservation Voters tracks the voting records of every member of Congress, and on a scale of 100, he gets a 14, which is actually better than most Republicans, who are in the single digits.
The EPA may be the poster child for unaccountable, undemocratic governance, but Weir claimed that Zeldin’s confirmation hearing is a test to see how healthy the Senate is as an institution, “But it just seems like if these other picks, Jim, that you're talking about, are any indication, these are pressure tests, you know, for the American and for the Senate, and when it comes to environmental rollbacks and what, you know, what he would hope to do and gut from day one on, you've got to imagine the sky is the limit for Lee Zeldin and that agency.”
Weir would add, “And there's a lot of folks who were there who survived the first term who are terrified today, Jim.”
Acosta followed up by declaring, “And Bill, this is happening as we're still getting new indicators, warning lights, about our climate.”
Weir naturally concurred, “Yeah, I mean, the temperatures are off the charts, the ocean temperatures, we're at the verge of these tipping points that once we go past them, when it comes to ocean currents or, you know, permafrost melting, we can't get back, right? So, these are such vital years right now that we're dealing with and this new administration, not only ambivalent about the science, but almost antagonistic. So, we'll see, we'll see who's able to hold the line.”
Claiming the EPA should try to thwart the will of its elected leaders is what makes people want to support disruptive outsiders like “these other picks” in the first place. Nobody voted for the EPA, something both it and CNN would be well-advised to remember, just like they should remember that constantly doom prophecying about the environment tends to fall on deaf ears after years of being wrong.
Here is a transcript for the November 14 show:
CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta
11/14/2024
10:53 AM ET
JIM ACOSTA: Bill, what can you tell us about this? Because, I mean, he could have picked a coal industry lobbyist or something like that, but Lee Zeldin?
BILL WEIR: Yeah, that was the move, the last go around.
ACOSTA: Right.
WEIR: You remember, Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who spent most of his year suing the EPA, put in charge of it, and then he flamed out during ethics scandals. Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist, replaced him there, and probably wanted that job back, from what we understand. But Lee Zeldin, like all of these picks, a true loyalist, of course voted against the 2020 election certification, sat with Trumps in the box many times.
Former New York, from Long Island, put himself, actually, on climate solutions caucuses and estuary committees, because the environment matters very much to folks on Long Island there. But if you look at his voting record, 50 times he voted against climate change legislation, against clean water legislation, eleven times, clean air eight times. The League of Conservation Voters tracks the voting records of every member of Congress, and on a scale of 100, he gets a 14, which is actually better than most Republicans, who are in the single digits.
He did vote for regulating PFAS, forever chemicals, at one point and to give Native American tribes some money to actually release wild Buffalo, so that boosted his League of Conservation score a little bit.
But it just seems like if these other picks, Jim, that you're talking about, are any indication, these are pressure tests, you know, for the American and for the Senate, and when it comes to environmental rollbacks and what, you know, what he would hope to do and gut from day one on, you've got to imagine the sky is the limit for Lee Zeldin and that agency.
ACOSTA: Yeah.
WEIR: And there's a lot of folks who were there who survived the first term who are terrified today, Jim.
ACOSTA: And Bill, this is happening as we're still getting new indicators, warning lights, about our climate.
WEIR: Exactly. Yeah, I mean, the temperatures are off the charts, the ocean temperatures, we're at the verge of these tipping points that once we go past them, when it comes to ocean currents or, you know, permafrost melting, we can't get back, right? So, these are such vital years right now that we're dealing with and this new administration, not only ambivalent about the science, but almost antagonistic. So, we'll see, we'll see who's able to hold the line.
ACOSTA: All right, Bill Weir, and of course, Donald Trump at the head of all of this has made a lot of claims that are just outright climate denialism. Bill Weir, thank you very much for your time.
