Looking at real green initiatives.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us today is Lee Zelden. He’s the administrator of the EPA and a good friend and we’ve known him for zenion years. Well, mister Zeldon, give us an update on all the things that you’re finding at the EPA. You just got there, you just got confirmed.

0:24 And is it an adventure. I know you have, like you’ve told me, fifteen thousand employees. That’s a lot of people to manage.

0:34 Speaker 2 We’re doing a great job and we’re excited. Just this past week we had our initial return to work from President Trump’s executive order. I’m wanting to get federal employees back in the workplace. COVID era remote work days are over.

0:50 COVID is in the past. We need people in the office to be productive, collaborating, working hard together and making the American public proud, which is really important to us here at the EPA to do our part to make the American public proud. There’s a great team that President Trump brought together for this cabinet. This isn’t a team

1:11 of rivals approach that we’ve seen with administrations of the past. We work well together. There’s good chemistry. We’re all motivated to make the most of this time to do a good job. And the American public spoke loud and clear this past November that they want an economy that works for them. They want crime and public safety to be tackled,

1:34 they want energy dominance to be restored. And there’s a lot of opportunity in front of us. And as you look at the first thirty days now under our belt of my time as EPA administrator, it’s will have been a little bit more than that for a President Trump since inauguration day. This isn’t a moment where we’re resting,

1:55 we’re taking our foot off the gas pedal. We’re feeling like our difficult work is done. We are just getting started at an exciting time.

2:04 Speaker 1 Has Elon Musk hit the EPA yet, I mean, have you seen any signs of a large waste or whatever.

2:14 Speaker 2 I’m glad that you asked.

2:15 Speaker 1 It was impression. Yeah.

2:17 Speaker 2 We’ve been working closely with employees who have been involved in that government efficiency effort and working with those we’ve canceled thirty grants totally, one hundred and twenty seven million dollars grants that were designated for a DEI and environmental justice.

2:37 And listen, if someone’s out there advocating for environmental justice, arguing that we need to help remediate some environmental issue in some community that’s been left behind. That’s logic that everyone agrees with. The problem is is that in the name of environmental justice, grants will be given out to ideological advocation see groups as opposed to spending that dollar

3:03 to actually remediate the environmental concern. It’s important for us to tackle that stand.

3:08 Speaker 1 I understand. I forget which agency. It was a couple of different agencies that they were actually paying for the picketers.

3:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, that that’s not something that we’ve crossed paths with here. However, However, I will say that there are grants that are going out to the these activist groups. And you could say money is fungible and and that money that might be received for one particular purpose can help with an overall budget that supports unrelated activism. I

3:44 will tell you that the that was our big concern with it. So while we haven’t seen a lot of the very large scale examples of money going directly towards the activism, we’ve seen it go into the activist groups.

3:59 We had fifty million dollars go to the Climate Justice Alliance and grant that I canceled. Climate Justice Alligance says that climate justice runs through Gaza, it runs through a free Palestine. I don’t think that’s what the American taxpayer has in mind when they are showing any support for remediating an environmental issue of some community that’s left behind.

4:21 They don’t want fifty million dollars going to the Climate Justice Alliance advocating for a free Palestine.

4:27 Speaker 1 That is crazy. I’ve heard things like that going on and the amount of waste was phenomenal. What else do you want to tell you? Market people? Sunday morning, people are drinking their coffee and they’re thinking about things. What you want to accomplish. We want to have more energy, We want to be something more self sufficient in the

4:49 United States. Can you tell us?

4:52 Speaker 2 Well, tell you. I know you have a lot of listeners in the Northeast. President Trump has been advocating for institution pipeline to transport natural gas. It’s important that we have more baseload energy supply in this country. Some are pushing for offshore wind as if we can just move all of our baseload energy to these intermittent sources. We

5:20 need to be smart We need to be smart with our energy policy. We need to be smarter with the tax dollars are being spent. We have to have zero dollars for waste and abuse. We have to crack down on crime on our streets. America’s golden age of successes upon us. I take it to heart. I see it

5:39 every day I speak to the President now almost every day. There’s a passion and purpose in the way that he’s approaching this job, the way our entire team is approaching this job. We just very much want to make the American public proud.

5:55 Speaker 1 I understand. And I was at the New York Stocking Change. I thought when President I thought that, did he turn to you? Are you in charge of some of the nuclear programs too?

6:07 Speaker 2 Well? President Trump signed an executive order creating a National Energy Dominance Council. I’m serving on that along with Doug Bergham from the Department of Interior, and you have Chris Wright from the Department of Energy and other agencies depending on the issue wherever overlaps or the jurisdiction from another agency.

6:25 We all need to be working together to unleash energy dominance. We want to ensure that there’s permitting reform. We have an initiative here at EPA that we launched over the last few weeks called Powering the Great American Initiative. Pillar one is make sure we have clean airlina water, but we also have to become energy dominant, make America the

6:46 AI capital of the world, pursue perving and reform, and bring back American auto jobs. These are all important priorities of the President. So therefore they are very important priorities of mine in the EPA.

6:57 Speaker 1 And I because at one point, the only thing that’s going to replace oil, not replace at one hundred percent over the next twenty thirty forty years is nuclear and they’re doing those small modular reactors that were the I guess the nuclear powers are used in the navy and the aircraft carriers are used in the submarines. But that’s the future.

7:21 Speaker 2 Yeah. Amen, we need more nuclear That’s absolutely part of in all the above solution, and it cannot be forgotten. It should be aggressively pursued.

7:31 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, we got a minute left. What do you want to tell you American people?

7:36 Speaker 2 Listen, It’s just it’s a really exciting time, but you know, we can’t rest. This is an easy We need to continue talking to our friends, our family, our neighbors, keeping the community engaged. You know, it’s one thing when you’re a day or a week, a month away from an election.

7:51 Everyone’s paying attention, they’re fired up, they’re talking. But it’s important for people to be involved in the process even when there is an election and going on, and we all have our passion, we all have our priorities. The power of our voice needs to be heard in moments like this. We need to hold our government accountable. We

8:12 need all levels of government working efficiently and effectively with each other. But the most important message to those across this country is to feel good this Sunday morning. This golden age of American success is upon us. It’s just important that we all do our parts, spreading the good word, fighting a good fight, to make sure that our priorities

8:34 are getting pursued aggressively in government at all levels of government. Because tomorrow is better than it is today. I’m excited for the future, especially if past is prologue. This last month has been amazing, a good.

8:47 Speaker 1 Future, a great future for our children and grandchildren to come and thank you so much. EPA Administrator Liezelden, thank you for your hard work and thank you for being a great American.

9:01 Speaker 2 Thanks a lot, John, take care