The Environmental Records of Trump’s Picks to Head Interior and the EPA
Donald Trump’s nominees, Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin, nominated for Secretary of the Interior and head of the EPA respectively, are scheduled to appear before Capitol Hill this week for their Congressional hearings. We urge the US Senate to vote against both confirmations. In a time when communities across America are dealing with the disastrous impacts of the climate crisis, we need leaders who will place the health of our public lands, clean air, clean water, wildlife, and communities at the forefront.
Doug Burgum, Department of the Interior
Doug Burgum, the former Governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024, hails from a state that ranks third in oil production and seventh in coal production. In his role as Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Burgum is expected to continue to champion these energy sectors. Notably, in 2021, he set an ambitious goal for North Dakota to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. While his plan focuses on support for nature-based carbon sequestration through sustainable agricultural practices like cover cropping, no-till farming, and rotational grazing, there is no proposed shift away from fossil fuels but instead relies heavily on costly and controversial carbon capture and storage technologies. Burgum also established the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, created the Office of Outdoor Recreation, and signed a 2021 law mandating the teaching of Indigenous history in public schools.
Despite these actions, Burgum’s history of support for deregulation—such as backing the Trump administration’s gutting of the National Environmental Policy Act and opposing new methane regulations from the Bureau of Land Management—suggests he will pursue further weakening of environmental safeguards. Additionally, Burgum was among a group of governors who opposed the Biden administration’s goal of protecting 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Under his leadership, North Dakota also supported a failed legal challenge in Utah that sought to remove 18 million acres of U.S. public lands from protection.
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency
Lee Zeldin, who represented New York’s 1st Congressional District from 2015 to 2023, has a record of votes that lean heavily against environmental protection, earning him a lifetime score of just 14% from the League of Conservation Voters. His most notable anti-environmental votes include opposing legislation to replace lead service lines for drinking water nationwide, supporting Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, opposing a new EPA methane rule aimed at curbing pollution from fossil fuel operations and backing a weakened EPA particulate matter standard under the Clean Air Act. Zeldin also opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated hundreds of billions to clean energy, clean water, and air initiatives.
While Zeldin did vote against a 2020 amendment that would have severely cut EPA funding, he has consistently supported other bills that aimed to slash EPA and environmental program budgets. On the other hand, Zeldin has shown consistent support for bills addressing PFAS (forever chemicals) contamination and measures to ban oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Though both Burgum and Zeldin have supported a select few environmental initiatives and common-sense policies, their overall records suggest they are firmly aligned with Donald Trump’s anti-science, pro-polluter agenda, which has historically undermined public lands protections and weakened environmental safeguards. Washington Wild urges the US Senate to vote against confirming Zeldin as the next leader of the EPA and against Burgum as the next Secretary of the Interior. In a time when communities across America are dealing with the disastrous impacts of the climate crisis, we need leaders who will place the health of our public lands, clean air, clean water, wildlife, and communities at the forefront.
