There is no better time for the US to be energy independent.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, Independence Day Weekend, Well with us today is a hometown guy. Lee Selden, a veteran, a one more came close to winning for governor of New York State and you never know what happens in the future. Well Lee Selden, you’re the EPA administrator. Congratulations And this Independence Day weekend? Is North America going to be independent of

0:31 energy from the rest of the world someday.

0:34 Speaker 2 There is no better way as we head into your two hundred and fifty as Republic, for Americans to celebrate our freedom than to be pursuing American energy independence, American energy dominance. There’s no time that’s better than now. If you care about the economy, you care about national security, you care about our environment, than Americans everywhere should all

0:59 be President Trump’s push to unleash energy dominance. And we’re filled with opportunity here across America. Fortunately, we have a whole lot of states that have been doing their part to push it. Some other states going in the opposite direction, and we’re working through that. But at the Trump administration, we understand that there’s a need for more baseload power.

1:25 We understand that there is a lot that we inherited from the Biden administration that put roadblocks in trying to strangulate the economy, trying to suffocate industries out of existence. And instead we want to turn that around. We want to pursue permitting reform, We want more baseload power, we want to create those jobs, and we want to celebrate

1:48 American independence by unleashing American freedom through our energy dominance.

1:54 Speaker 1 I know, between the United States and Canada, we have enough energy to last us how some years, and that’s even before we start talking about nuclear energy that’s going to be coming over the next ten to twenty years.

2:10 Speaker 2 Yeah, we have so much resource here underneath us that every time I see our country relying on some foreign other nation, especially a foreign adversary, in order to power our country, it really makes you cringe. A lot of Americans pulling out their hair, wondering why we have continued to get this so wrong for so long. And President

2:37 trum campaign on the last year it just got back from Alaska. Was there with Secretary Doug Bergham and Secretary Chris Wright. Together we serve on the National Energy Dominance Council. And just taking Alaska for example, they have a several hundred mile long pipeline that transports oil from the north slope, but there’s the ability to double, triple, quadruple that. While

3:02 that’s going on, there’s a push for a several hundred mile lng pipeline to get added. While we were there in Alaska, there were a bunch of Asian countries where senior members of their leadership were on hand because they want to tap into it. So from an exporting stand standpoint, we’re able to add to our economy there. Now you

3:24 move over across the map to the northeast, there’s a renewed push by Williams and others to be able to transport natural gas into and through the state of New York. There’s a need for it in New England, and whether it’s Constitution pipeline nest pipeline, there’s tremendous opportunity in the northeast region of the US. And I remember at one

3:52 point I was served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and this was right after Joe Biden was inaugurated and John Kerry was selected as the climates are and he was before the committee and a Republican member of the committee asked John Kerry, what is the safest way for the environment to transport energy. It was a multiple choice question.

4:13 There are options like pipelines, trucks, trains, and the list goes on and without missing a beat, John Kerry said, pipeline. If we all understand that this is a big boon, including being environmentally friendly, then we should have more of it.

4:32 And I think more and more Americans get it, so tapping into our own resource, having more of an opportunity to be able to transmit it. We were living in a moment where here at the Trump EPA, we just want to say approved. We want to get to yes, and we want to get this done fast.

4:52 Speaker 1 Well, the pipeline problem might be solved. It looks like the Minnesota situation with m Bridge is going to the Supreme Court to make it decision. I guess I will sell things once and for all.

5:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, there’s there’s also a big n bridge push in the Great Lakes region. I’ve heard about it from multiple states in my travels up there and and again other states where there’s a little bit of a battle over a direction of where energy policy should be in this country. But the fact is that we need

5:28 to get more of these pipelines done. And I would also say one of the other important goals for President Trump is to make sure America is the AI capital of the world. Well, that requires requires more energy. And there are some governors in the country who have like they understand how to deal with baseload power, and they

5:51 understand that wind is should be considered an intermittent source that is not a substitute for baseload power. But there are others that feel very differently and they think that wind is the answer to replace baseload power. The fact is we need more baseload power. We need a lot more baseload power. And I think if the American public

6:15 is more and more outspoken about their desire with the economic benefits, the jobs, to reduced costs to fill up a tank or to heat a home. As the American public gets more outspoken, that will drive policy to go in the right direction.

6:31 Speaker 1 Well, you brought up wind, and we have a possible disaster happening in Long Island, your home and my home on weekends. That those windmills are going to destroy the environment between the fisheries and killing the whales. And really, at the end of the day, those windmills are gonna end up questing Long Islanders double a triple with their

6:59 paying for electricity.

7:00 Speaker 2 Now, yeah, President, that last part is important too, is just looking at the raw economics of it. You brought up a lot of really important points. President Trump has been very strong and consistent as it relates to his position on wind. He inherited a map where a lot of these projects were in very different stages. Some were

7:26 much further along in permitting and construction, others not as much. And President Trump assigned executive orders. There’s been action taken by the administration to be able to stop projects all across the map. But you know, as I said that, there are some projects that were much further ahead than others.

7:47 But President Trump has been very consistent in his position as it relates to win and he speaks about the impacts on the fishery. He talks about the environmental impacts when you go through the life span of that windmill and you get to the end, well, what are you going to do with it next? While it’s out there?

8:04 And also there’s just a lot of Americans who will be most impacted. They live closest to it, they’re outspoken about it, and they want to be heard and represented on it. But you know, I really would not want to have anyone lose sight of miss out on or underestimate your last point about the economics of it. When

8:27 you look at the cost of all of these different forms of baseload power, and you compare that to the cost of wind, and you add to it the dynamic that without subsidies, without government propping up wind, that it becomes even less feasible, becomes even less economical. Man, if you’re if you’re not sure which way to go, and

8:51 you’re somewhere in between, and you look at the math, you look at the economics, well that should convince you against wind.

8:57 Speaker 1 Now the trends, I agree one hundred tempercent, and I’m fighting it on Long Island because I love Long Island. I love the people on Long Island, and the don’t deserve to get punished. Nuclear energy, the transition of America in Canada to nuclear energy. What do you see the timeline is that seven years, ten years, twenty years.

9:23 Speaker 2 I’ll say that as it relates to the Trump administration. While we’re here, we want to do everything in our power to fast track the process. It should take less time, it should have less cost, there should be more certainty, there is interest to put the investment in to create nuclear energy. This is a change as it relates to

9:46 this administration compared to the last one. But President Trump wants this stuff approved as quickly as possible. And one of the best ways to pursue permitting reform doesn’t even actually reques wire an Act of Congress. It just requires an agency like the EPA to get out of the way.

10:05 When we came in, we found all sorts of examples of EPA coming up the works and ways that it didn’t need to slowing down projects that we have over the course of these last few months spen speeding up.

10:18 The most durable action is going to be a change in statute because pendulum swaying, and if at some point there’s a presidential election in the future and someone else is in charge with a different philosophy towards permitting, well, then we’re going to want to make sure that it’s put into law, that it’s going to require less time,

10:39 have less cost, and have more certainty. But nuclear is certainly a key part of the future. It’s something that we should be pursuing. It’s not you know, it’s not something where you just you wake up on Monday, July seventh and say we’re going to have it. You’re all built and finished in a week. There’s a lot to it,

11:04 including a big investment. But the fact is that President Trump is all in. This team is all in, the National Energy Dominance Council is all in to do our part to help.

11:14 Speaker 1 Lee Zeldon, EPA Administrator, thank you so much for coming on. And we’ve got to make the United States and North America independent free for energy. And well it’s Independence Day weekend. Hopefully we’re going to be in the independent of energy from the rest of the world. And God bless America.

11:38 Speaker 2 Amen, Thanks Sean.

11:40 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, and have a great weekend.

11:42 Speaker 2 Yes you as well. Take care.