18
Nov
Amid the Health, Biodiversity, and Climate Crises, Nominee to EPA Head Walks in Lockstep with Trump Denialism
(Beyond Pesticides, November 18, 2024) With the reported appointment of former U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to the position of Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Senate confirmation hearings will be an important process that is intended to shine a light on individual nominations, the policies of an administration, and the science (or lack thereof) behind them. There have been reports in the media that the Trump administration may attempt to circumvent the “advice and consent” rule of the U.S. Senate by making recess appointments. Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers: No. 76 that Senate confirmation hearings act as a safeguard against the appointment of “unfit” officials.
Numerous interviews and critiques are painting a picture of what the future holds for environmental protection and all that means for addressing the serious catastrophic threats of ongoing and escalating health, biodiversity, and climate crises. “Mr. Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” has targeted “every one” of Mr. Biden’s policies designed to transition the United States away from fossil fuels,” according to The New York Times reporting on June 26, 2024. The Guardian reported on October 1 after Hurricane Helene, “As the hurricane continued to ravage the region over the weekend, the former president dismissed global warming in a Saturday speech, and the following day referred to the climate crisis as “one of the great scams of all time.” “More than 230 people have been killed from Hurricane Helene, which unleashed devastation across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee,” ABC News reported on October 7. The intensity and severity of hurricanes are directly related to climate change, according to Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
French researcher and professor Barbara Demeneix, PhD points out in her article, “How fossil fuel-derived pesticides and plastics harm health, biodiversity, and the climate,” in The Lancet, that, ”[Rachel] Carson [now over 60 years ago] showed that the decline in bird and fish populations was due to the pesticide DDT— 30 years before research showed that DDT acted through endocrine mechanisms. Oil is used to make chlorobenzene, which in turn is used to synthesize DDT. Similarly, many pesticides such as neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, and glyphosate are produced from gas and oil.” Plastics, PFAS, and more, are a part of this list. Tracey Woodruff, PhD (professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and the EaRTH Center), School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, earlier this year wrote the article ”Health Effects of Fossil Fuel–Derived Endocrine Disruptors” in The New England Journal of Medicine, highlighting the urgent need to address the widespread chemical pollution stemming from the petrochemical industry and underscoring the dire implications for public health. In addition to the effects on climate, Dr. Woodruff points out that, “Many of these fossil-fuel-based chemicals are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with hormonal systems, and they are part of the disturbing rise in disease.” (See Daily News.) [Shortly, Beyond Pesticides will be posting Dr. Woodruff’s keynote to Beyond Pesticides’ National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, on November 14.]
It is expected that the Trump administration will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which is considered “the most important UN [United Nations] process to tackle climate change,” according to the BBC. The BBC reports that, “The agreement saw almost all the world’s nations—for the first time—agree to cut the greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming.”
Beyond the climate crisis, as the Trump administration is preparing to take office, the nation and world face existential crises that require urgent action. Human actions are contributing to an ongoing Holocene or sixth mass extinction, as well as crises in human disease. Humans and the biosphere will suffer if President-elect Trump’s new EPA Administrator follows a course destructive of EPA’s mission. Although some have called the environmental record of Mr. Trump’s nominee Lee Zeldin “mixed,” citing his past acknowledgment that climate change is real and support for regulating PFAS, he has shown his loyalty by supporting the former president through his first impeachment trial and challenges to the 2020 election results.
According to Mother Jones magazine, “By tapping former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump opted to put his planned radical rollback of climate policy in the hands of a staunch ally who is skilled at projecting an image of a moderate conservationist.”
Climate change is a real crisis and requires serious action. It is one of multiple crises that are compounding one another. Continued reliance on petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers is a major contributor to the release of greenhouse gases and the failure to reverse the threat through atmospheric carbon sequestration in healthy soils. While climate change may be most apparent—128 degrees F in Death Valley, heat waves in India, the U.S., and globally, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, another wildfire season, etc.—there are also crises in human disease and biodiversity collapse. Heat makes the health effects of pesticides more serious. Climate change is intensifying the impacts of habitat destruction and toxic chemicals on biodiversity. The urgency to act is made more apparent every day.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Zeldin have made clear that the mission of the new EPA Administrator is to enact “deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” Of course, businesses and the environment can coexist if industry adapts to the need for practices and products that are compatible with a healthy environment.
The stated mission of EPA is “to protect human health and the environment,” ensuring that:
- Americans have clean air, land, and water;
- National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information;
- Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively and as Congress intended;
- Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
- All parts of society—communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments—have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
- Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up by potentially responsible parties and revitalized; and
- Chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety.
Unless Mr. Trump is successful in evading the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing process, Senators will have an opportunity to probe the nominee’s knowledge of environmental crises and how his deregulatory mission aligns with the mission of protecting human health and the environment.
How does Mr. Zeldin’s support of profligate energy use and petroleum-based industries further EPA’s mission to protect public health, in view of their numerous adverse existential impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate? How does he intend to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water, while pursuing a deregulatory agenda? How will he guarantee that EPA acts on the best independent science? How will EPA limit use of chemicals to those that are thoroughly reviewed for possible impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate?
Tell your U.S. Senators, under their responsibility to provide “advice and consent” for presidential appointments, to fully vet Lee Zeldin—for the position of EPA Administrator—on his understanding of the current existential environmental crises and the mission of EPA.
Letter to U.S. Senators
I am writing to ask you to use the confirmation hearing of President-elect Trump’s nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shine a light on the environmental plans of the new administration. It is critical that you exercise your responsibility to provide advice and consent for all presidential appointments, especially those who have a dramatic impact on the health and well-being of the people of our state and nation. Do not permit the circumvention of Senate confirmation hearings, which, as Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, act as a safeguard against the appointment of “unfit” officials.
The nation and world face existential crises that require urgent action. Human actions are contributing to an ongoing sixth mass extinction, as well as crises in human disease and climate change. We cannot politicize science that informs public policy intended to protect public health and the environment. Although some have called the environmental record of President-elect Trump’s nominee Lee Zeldin “mixed,” citing his past acknowledgment that climate change is real and support for regulating PFAS (or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances known as “forever chemicals”), the EPA Administrator must exercise a first loyalty to the mission of the agency and health of the environment that sustains our lives.
Both President-elect Trump and Mr. Zeldin have made clear that the mission of the new EPA Administrator is to enact “deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” In contrast, the stated mission of EPA is “to protect human health and the environment.” Both can be achieved as industry adapts to the need for practices and products that are compatible with a healthy environment. EPA’s mission has been clearly nonpartisan and focused on the health of everyone and future generations.
EPA states that it works to ensure that:
*Americans have clean air, land, and water;
*National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information;
*Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively, and as Congress intended;
*Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
*All parts of society–communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local, and tribal governments–have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
*Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up by potentially responsible parties and revitalized; and
*Chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety.
Senate confirmation hearings must shine a light on the policies of the new administration and the science behind them. How can Mr. Zeldin’s address energy use and petroleum-based industries within the context of EPA’s mission to protect public health, recognizing the existential crises, identified by independent scientific analyses, that threaten human health, biodiversity, and climate stability? How does he intend to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water while pursuing a deregulatory agenda? How will he guarantee that EPA acts on the best independent science? How will EPA limit use of chemicals to those that are thoroughly reviewed for possible impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate?
Thank you for your consideration. I would appreciate knowing that you intend to fulfill your important advice and consent responsibility on presidential appointments, and help the nation unify on the protection of our health, the health of our nation’s children, and the health of the environment for future generations.
