'Swamp Of Corruption': Sheldon Whitehouse Decries EPA Under Lee Zeldin

Forbes Breaking News

At Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing,  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) decried the EPA under EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Transcript

00:00Let's serve as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works over his 20-year career.

00:04He's demonstrated admirable commitment to public service.

00:07His testimony and his experience securing resources for disaster response and recovery

00:11suggest that he appreciates the dire consequences that natural disasters wreak on red and blue states alike.

00:19I hope Mr. Teller will carry this lesson forward and ensure that the Corps executes its mission objectively and without political bias.

00:27I will also support Sean McMaster to lead the Federal Highways Administration.

00:33First off, I appreciate DOT moving expeditiously to obligate funds to hundreds of previously awarded discretionary grants.

00:40As I've said, I don't think the grants ever should have been paused or frozen.

00:44But on the other hand, the previous administration should also not have left thousands of awarded but unobligated grants.

00:49One unresolved item is the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program created in our bipartisan infrastructure bill, which remains frozen.

00:59DOT has assured my staff that draft guidance for NEVI will be released in two weeks.

01:05Based on this assurance, I will vote in favor of Mr. McMaster's nomination.

01:09But that support and committee will evaporate on the floor if the draft guidance doesn't appear or is unworkable for states.

01:16I am trusting at this point.

01:18Progress like this is key to Democratic support for a highway bill next year.

01:23So I'm doubly happy to see steps going in the right direction.

01:27Lastly, on John Busterwood, I will vote no.

01:29When we heard from these nominees on May 14th, I warned that EPA was a mess.

01:34It remains a mess.

01:35Administrator Zeldin continues his brazen, polluter-driven assault on clean air, clean water, and a safe climate.

01:42He has made it his mission to blockade illegally,

01:44congressionally authorized and appropriated funding.

01:47His performance has utterly belied his promise of being responsive to Congress.

01:52The Environmental Protection Agency has become the polluter protection agency and a swamp of corruption.

01:58Whatever this individual's personal merits, I cannot support this nominee for an agency so dishonorably in the service of polluting interests.

02:05Word about the Republican reconciliation bill.

02:08Last week, the EPW title was released.

02:11Unfortunately, it included a raft of rescissions, a repeal of EPA's emission standards for cars and light trucks,

02:16a pay-to-play scheme to expedite permitting, and a 10-year suspension of a fee on excess methane emissions,

02:23much of it in violation of reconciliation rules.

02:25None of this is good, but let me focus on the methane fee.

02:30Methane is responsible for up to 30% of the warming we've observed.

02:34Fossil fuel production and transport are among the worst sources of methane emissions.

02:39Eliminating those methane emissions should be easy.

02:41It is true low-hanging fruit.

02:43Methane is natural gas.

02:45It's product.

02:46Producers capturing their leaked methane would have more product to sell.

02:49That's why an estimated 50% of methane emissions from oil and gas operations could be captured at zero net cost.

02:58Plus, more captured methane means lower prices for gas consumers.

03:02Remember that our methane fee only hit companies failing the industry's own leakage standards.

03:09Meet your own weak industry standards and you pay nothing.

03:12Only if you're among the worst do you pay a fee.

03:15Based on your own excess emissions,

03:17only the dirtiest companies would pay a fee and only if they don't hit their own targets.

03:23Plus, we had a deal.

03:25A billion dollars of taxpayer money went to industry to pay for cleaning up its own mess

03:29and industry got a weakened methane fee.

03:32So everything about this industry behavior is dishonorable.

03:36For what it's worth, the Appalachian Basin is one of the cleanest producing basins in the United States,

03:40especially compared to emissions-intensive basins like the Permian.

03:44So the methane fee would help cleaner producers like those in West Virginia.

03:48Republicans now seek to suspend the fee for 10 years,

03:51having already used the CRA to end EPA's rule for collecting the fee.

03:56EPA also announced that it will ease enforcement efforts on methane,

04:00will suspend compliance deadlines for its methane regulation,

04:03and contemplates rescinding it entirely,

04:06the true pollute-for-free fossil fuel business model.

04:09I will take this moment to warn the industry.

04:13Have your fun today.

04:14This isn't going away.

04:17Satellites can now spot the leakers,

04:19so we can let the world know just how dirty and irresponsible your industry is.

04:24We can make sure people know how false the industry's declarations have been about methane emissions.

04:30We can make sure that the public understands the cost of your methane leakage,

04:35the cost in higher insurance premiums, higher grocery prices,

04:38higher electric bills, and reduced air quality,

04:40for instance, from Canadian wildfires again burning out of control.

04:44We can make sure people know you wouldn't even enforce your own weak industry standards.

04:50The industry has in recent months shown its true colors,

04:53and we will remember persistent industry corruption of the political process

04:59has brought us to this era of climate consequences.

05:03And the Trump administration's crawling servitude to fossil fuel polluters

05:07will only worsen those consequences.

05:10And as those consequences come to pass,

05:13there will also come a reckoning.

05:15Thank you, Chairman.

05:16Thank you, Senator Whitehouse.

05:19And at this time, I will ask senators to hold their remarks on the nominee.

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