Poet Mary Oliver’s beautiful, haunting line has never felt so relevant to me: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
I want to do all I can to make sure we are cutting the damaging climate and air pollution that is already hurting people and triggering dangerous levels of extreme weather. That’s why I—and my colleagues at Moms Clean Air Force—care about who is running the agencies whose jobs are to protect us. Our children rely on our perseverance and strength and tenacity in fighting for us, grounded in love. That’s our mission.
We are seeing a firehose of alarming (not yet official) nominations. All those that touch on our work on air and climate pollution are climate science deniers. Liberty Oil CEO Chris Wright, chosen to head Department of Energy: “There is no climate crisis.” Matt Gaetz, the pick to head the Department of Justice—where people can turn when businesses violate the Clean Air Act—proposed legislation in Congress to abolish EPA.
And Lee Zeldin, chosen to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Members of Moms Clean Air Force have worked hard to achieve protections from pollution. We must ask Senators to take a close look Zeldin’s record.
Tell the Senate: Sound the Alarm on EPA Administrator Pick
Zeldin has a weak track record on reining in polluters. He has voted to cut EPA funding. His day one agenda, announced on Fox News: launch a spree of rollbacks of the protections from air and climate pollution we fought so hard to achieve.
- We are calling BS on claims that regulations are harming the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel companies are reporting record profits—under President Biden.
- Zeldin’s promise to restore energy dominance in the U.S. is empty—and not EPA’s job. We are already the world’s largest supplier of oil and gas. The job of EPA chief is to make sure we aren’t paying the price by polluting our air and water and making people sick.
- America is also among global leaders in the clean energy and transportation transition, reaping the benefits of the excellent jobs that innovative technology creates. We cannot risk falling behind. Strong and consistent EPA protections are crucial to this goal.
- Zeldin is not a scientist, yet he questions the scientific evidence of the grave danger that comes with a warming planet. EPA must follow the science. Zeldin has voted to block EPA from cutting carbon pollution.
- His nomination comes at a crucial time, as the plastics and petrochemical industries are preparing an onslaught to shortcut the process of getting chemicals onto the market—and we are already awash in toxic, cancer-causing, and hormone-disrupting chemicals. In 2019, Zeldin did vote with environmentalists against eliminating funding for EPA’s chemicals risk assessment system.
- Our colleagues at the League of Conservation Voters have analyzed Zeldin’s votes on environmental issues. They give him a lifetime score of 14 out of 100. In my house, that’s an F.
Tell your Senators they must probe Zeldin’s radical deregulatory agenda and scrutinize his claimed commitment to EPA’s core mission—to protect all people and the environment from toxic chemicals, air pollution, and climate pollution.
We are lurching from an administration that took an all-hands-in, all-of-government approach to tackling climate pollution to a none-of-government approach. All the nominees who deny the importance of cutting carbon and methane pollution present a test of leadership for Senators; we can only hope they stand strong—their legacy will last generations. These nominations are not a matter of Republicans versus Democrats. They are matters of caring about human health and safety, protecting all that we love and hold dear.
Tell your Senators you want EPA leadership that will do the job of protecting the people. That is a right of everyone in the U.S., no matter their party affiliation. Make this fight part of your “one wild and precious life.”