FEMA Is Messing Up Again During Partial Gov't Shutdown, Thanks To ICE Barbie

Not really surprising, but Kristi Noem is making
disaster relief work for FEMA employees harder
than it needs to be during the
current partial government shutdown. 

The partial government shutdown, affecting the Department of Homeland Security, TSA and the Federal Emergency Management District, is about a week old now, and shows no signs of ending. 

Usually, when this type of things happen, essential workers keep working. That should include FEMA employees who should be helping victims of disasters, like the epic winter storm last month. 

As usually, the Trump administration, namely Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem, seem to be messing it up.  As head of DHS, Noem oversees FEMA. 

According to the Washington Post,  DHS halted almost all travel, which virtually erased the ability of FEMA staff to move in and out of disaster areas. WaPo based its reporting emails and documents the paper obtained.

Homeland Security and FEMA employee typically stop traveling to things like trainings, or conferences during government shutdowns. But a government shutdown almost never stops people from going to disaster areas to help with recovery.  

Per WaPo:

"On Tuesday might, DHS sent out an email ordering a stop to all travel, including for disaster-related work, sparking confusion across FEMA as teams continue to respond to 14 ongoing disaster declarations as a result of brutal winter storms that hit parts of the country last month. 

In another message obtained by the Post, a FEMA official said that 'ALL travel stopped' and noted that 360 people who were slated to go to trainings and other assignments had to stand down. People who were supposed to deploy could begin some work virtually, but DHS now had to sign off on their in-person assignment, the message said." 

 The restrictions on travel have come down even though most FEMA deployments are paid through a Disaster Relief Fund that isn't affected by the shutdown, CNN noted. 

 Officials told the Washington Post that the stoppage on trips to disaster areas reflect policies instituted under Noem.  

"That's why instituting travel restrictions when staffers are still working on this storm responses is even more frustrating, several current employees said. 'They are just trying to make it hurt, and the only people they are hurting are survivors and FEMA employees."

When the no-travel directive went out, official and employees at DHS and FEMA sought guidance from higher ups on how to reach disaster areas and continue their work. 

To justify heading to a disaster zone, staffers were told to submit their justifications to higher ups, including whether the trip was "mission essential"  and involves the "safety of human life or protection of property."

Of course, somebody then has to approve the whole each employee statement, so you can see the bottleneck here. 

FEMA employees are not happy, as you can imagine. "DHS imposing restrictions FEMA's ability to deploy our response/recovery workforce slows us down and limits our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of impacted states and communities," one employee wrote.

People who were in regions hit hard by recent storms could continue their work, at least for now. But other FEMA  employees who were scheduled to rotate in this Thursday to relieve those workers are now barred from doing so. 

The rotations are important for disaster work because FEMA officials who have been working nonstop get a break, refresh, and are able to go full speed ahead when it's their turn to go in again. FEMA is also required to relieve employees who have been working too long in a state where they don't live, WaPo noted.

The delays affect recovery from disasters that happened as long ago as the autumn of 2024, when Hurricane Helene smashed huge swaths of the Southeastern U.S. That's going to create backlogs in the future. 

"'If we can't get people to Florida or North Carolina to help validate damages from Helene, we can't approve funding for these projects,' one FEMA official, who asked not to be identified, told CNN. 'If we can't staff a Disaster Recovery Center in Washington State or Alaska, how can people get help with their assistance applications?'

DHS of course deny that there's a problem, but in a statement said restrictions on travel are "not a choice but are necessary to comply with federal law"

 "While some non-essential activities will be paused or scaled back FEMA remains committed to supporting communities and responding to incidents like Hurricane Helene," according to the DHS statement. 

The travel restrictions during the shutdown are on top of a policy ICE Barbie put in place last year, which states that each expenditure over $100,000 requires Noem's personal approval. That has created enormous backlogs in FEMA funds awaiting her go-ahead. Members of Congress and state officials are also exasperated with this. 

It doesn't help that ICE Barbie is so often too busy cosplaying as some sort of immigration cop for the cameras instead of actually doing her job.

The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month at the hands of federal immigration officers prompted Democrats to demand reforms in exchange for a spending package to fund affected federal agencies. 

Democrats want to bar immigration officers fm wearing masks. They also want a stop to the "roving patrols" when officers conduct broad searches and stop people, sometimes on the flimsiest of evidence or no evidence that they might be in the U,S, illegally.  They also want to make it easier to pursue legal actions against officers who engage in misconduct. Also, they want agents to display clear identification when encountering the public.

Congress is not due in session again until next Monday, so it will be at least until then before anything is resolved. 

Even before this latest debacle, FEMA was down 1,600 employees compared to a little over a year ago under ICE Barbie's administration. 

 

Trump Administration Screws Hurricane Helene Victims Again

FEMA is dragging its feet in approving buyouts
for North Carolina homeowners whose property was
wrecked by Hurricane Helene 15 months ago. 

A popular Federal Emergency Management Agency feature is the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. People whose homes were wrecked in disasters and are at risk of being hit again after repairs can apply for a buyout. 

Qualfied applicants under the voluntary program can get the pre-storm value of their home. Then they can take the money and move somewhere that's less disaster prone. 

The damaged home is torn down, and the site would never be developed again. The community benefits because they won't have to deal with that property in the next disaster, since there would be no house there.  

More than 800 Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina applied for buyouts, some of them as long ago as this past February. North Carolina officials, having vetted the applications, sent nearly 600 of those to Washington for processing. More will likely get approved in North Carolina.

But so far, the only thing FEMA has heard in response is crickets. FEMA has not so much as approved one of the buyout applications.  

Reports the Washington Post:

"So far...not a single approval has come through. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has called the paralysis 'absolutely unacceptable,' and has pushed for answers. Earlier this month, he wrote to FEMA's acting administrator, detailing the startling number of applications that 'remain without a final decision.'"

By the time the Washington Post published the story more than a week ago, nobody from FEMA responded to requests for comment. 

However, once the story was published, the agency sent a short statement, saying it "remains committed" to North Carolina Helene recovery. The FEMA statement said many applicants had not been approved yet "because they do not comply with federal regulations." 

That's news to William Ray, the director of North Carolina Emergency Management, as NPR reports. "we do not have anything in hand that says that officially things are ineligible. We are not able to get a good answers from FEMA as to why they are not moving forward."

Join the club, William.  

Maybe the problem is Homeland Security Director Kristi "Ice Barbie" Noem, whose department has authority over FEMA.  She has a rule in which she personally approve every expenditure over $100,000.

My accusation is all conjecture and sarcasm on my part, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ice Barbie is gumming up the works with FEMA assistance because she's so busy kicking non-whites out of the country and cosplaying some sort of weird ICE assassin or something.  

 In the best circumstances, these buyouts take awhile to arrange. A 2019 study found that it takes a median of roughly five years to complete a buyout from start to finish. However, FEMA says it usually takes two years to complete. 

However, the Trump administration has deeply cut staffing at FEMA this year, so who's left to manage the buyout process. Plus, the very existence of FEMA is in question, as its future is being debated both Trump Powers That Be. 

Which leads us to another broken Trump promise. He had said that he would "slash through every bureaucratic barrier" and said "every single inch of every property will be fully rebuilt, greater and more beautiful that it was before."

So far. Trump's administration hasn't even been able to tear down damaged properties, never mind build everything back. North Carolina is still a mess, 15 months after the hurricane. 

I'll let WaPol handle this:

"The reality is that local governments continue to wait for large sums in federal reimbursements for debris cleanup and other projects. Roads still need repairs. Renters and homeowners remain displaced."

Click on this link to read the entire, very worthwhile WaPo article. 

     

Acting FEMA Director Who Didn't Know We Had Hurricane Season Leaves To Celebrate Hurricane Season End

David Richardson, the hands-off acting head
of FEMA is leaving the position at the end
of this month. But FEMA is still in 
crisis big time, thanks to the 
Trump administration. 

FEMA's acting director David Richardson, who alleged didn't know the U.S. has a hurricane season, has decided to resign at the end of hurricane season, which hits on November 30. 

Per Washington Post

"Richardson, who spent about six months as the acting head of the nation's response agency, has kept a low profile and is known for often being inaccessible, including during the early hours of the flood disaster in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. 

In recent months, five current agency employees said Richardson spent little time in daily operations meetings and shrank away from the role - one that typically demands the administrator be easily reachable. The staffers, like others interviewed of this story and previous coverage, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation."

Other reports also give a damning view of Richardson's alleged leadership style.

Per CNN:

"Some officials describe his leadership as brash and unpredictable, with a penchant for shouting and swearing. On one occasion, he asked staff whether disaster funds cold be steered to Republican areas but not Democratic ones, a FEMA official who heard the comments firsthand said.

At times, Richardson prohibited staff from bringing cell phones and computers into meetings. He often kept his own phone out of sight and rarely used email, leaving senior FEMA leaders struggling to reach him and making even basic communication a constant challenge."

NEXT FOR FEMA

Richardson reflected the Trump administration's disdain for FEMA. As noted, he was pretty much AWOL for at least part of this summer's huge Texas flood disaster. 

Early in his tenure, he also appeared to state that he did not know the United States has a hurricane season. The fact he decided to call it quits at the end of hurricane season is rich. 

FEMA is obviously critical when it comes to disaster response in the United States, deploying responders in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe to feed, house and literally save survivors. The agency also is supposed to help with long term recovery aid. 

The agency is getting more crucial as weather extremes and disasters increase in the face of climate change. 

Meanwhile, FEMA has long needed an overhaul, as individual victims, municipalities and states often report walls of bureaucracy when attempting to receive aid for rebuilding and adaptation after the immediate crisis is over. 

That might not be the focus, though. Trump during the beginning of his later term at first thought just getting rid of FEMA entirely was a boffo idea. That sort of morphed into keeping FEMA, but slashing staff and resources. And making states responsible for a much greater share of disaster response and recover. 

The trouble with that is most states don't have the money or resources to handle big disasters. So people whose homes are destroyed in a hurricane, flood or wildfire would more likely be out of luck and on their own. 

As it stands now, everybody is now waiting on a review council to come up with recommendations for FEMA. The council, commissioned by Trump and headed by Department of Homeland Security Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem.

With Noem in charge, what could go wrong?  We'll let you know when the report by the review council is released. 

There's already signs of discord with this review panel. Most of the panel has reportedly concluded FEMA should become more powerful and autonomous, making FEMA a cabinet level agency,

But Noem wants to keep FEMA under the control of her Department of Homeland Security. She also wants to remove FEMA from its direct role in disaster relief, and turning it into more of a grant-making department, according to the Washington Post. 

 Already, FEMA is a mess. FEMA has lost a quarter of its employees. In August, a whole bunch of employees wrote a public letter warning their leadership was substandard and harming FEMA's mission to manage emergencies. 

Also, Noem still has a rule in which she must sign off on each expense over $100,000. Which slows down responses to emergencies.

Meanwhile, FEMA's current chief of staff, Karen Evans will step into Richardson's role. 

In a statement, the department said they appreciated Richardson for his "dedicated service and wish continued success in his return to the private sector." 

Or something like that.   

Meanwhile, as U.S. citizens try to recover from disasters that have hit this year, and brace for the inevitable new calamities, we all know the U.S. government no longer has our backs. 

 

ICE Barbie Has GOP Angry Over Her Micromanaging, Which Screws Disaster Victims

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,
AKA Ice Barbie, is one of the people demonstrators
will object to during tomorrow's No Kings marches.
One of the things she's doing is slow walking
FEMA disaster aid, leaving storm victims
wondering if they'll ever get help. 

It looks like millions of people will take to the streets across the nation Saturday in "No Kings" protest against the Trump administration's authoritarian tendencies. 

Much of the public's ire is with Department of Homeland Security Kristie Noem, or, as she's often called,  ICE Barbie. 

Many of the protestors  are fed up with the bullying, violent and legally dubious, to put it mildly, tactics of ICE agents who ultimately report to Noem. 

Meanwhile, frustration is also growing with ICE Barbie over disaster responses. 

ICE isn't the only thing that's got people hot and bothered, though it's likely the biggest problem people have with Noem. 

As climate change makes storms and other weather events worse and more extreme, more and more people will need disaster aid to cope with these calamities. 

However, Ice Barbie, whose agency oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency,  is gumming up the works.  

According to Notus.org:

"Most of the frustration centers around a rule Noem implemented that she must review and approve any expense over $100,000 at the Department of Homeland Security. at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, housed in DHS, this directive has significantly slowed the agency's normally routine processor distributing much needed funds to states trying to rebuild in the aftermath of natural disasters. 

Noem's micromanaging became widely noticed during and after the horrific, deadly Fourth of July floods in the Texas Hill Country.

The $100,000 rule and ICE Barbie's slow response to everything meant FEMA could not pre-position Urban Search and Rescue teams in a timely manner.  Noem reportedly didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of the urban search and rescue teams until more than 72 hours after the flooding started.  

Apparently, this problem continues to fester, if not get worse. Says Notus.org:

Concerns among lawmakers continue to grow, but publicly and privately. Some members have taken their complaints to administration officials, multiple sources told NOTUS."

Those complaining include Republican lawmakers, who are walking a self-imposed high wire. On the one hand, they can't get Trump or any of his minions annoyed because, I don't know, they'll get sent to a gulag in Uganda or something. On the other hand, these GOP Congress creatures must make sure their constituents are getting the attention they probably voted for. 

That's certainly true in North Carolina, which is still trying to get its feet under themselves after the devastating blow from Hurricane Helene last year. 

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) has put a hold on Department of Homeland Security nominees because FEMA is slow -walking billions of dollars worth of Helene aid to his state.  Budd said he doesn't have a problem with the DHS nominees and would vote for them, but first he wants to see promised aid get to the states Helene victims. 

Predictably, a DHS spokesperson got all snarky in a statement regarding Ice Barbie's $100,000 rule.  "Who are those members complaining? Democrats who shut down the government?," the spokesperson said in a statement. 

The spokeperson's statement claims Ice Barbie's policies have so far saved $13.2 billion because she reviews every DHS contract worth more than $100,000. "Despite constant criticism of this policy from the media and D.C. bureaucrats, results like these speak for themselves."

Or not. We don't know if the money "saved" is just because Ice Barbie hasn't gotten around to reviewing contracts that have been sitting around forever. I would like to see a spreadsheet of the contracts she rejected or modified to save money. 

FEMA has always been slow with relief money, especially once the immediate aftermath of the disaster has passed. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including liberal Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt have pushed for reform. 

But even getting Noem's attention is quite an effort. She's always cosplaying ICE goons, or getting in front of TV cameras to snarl at immigrants. 

'"The view among Republicans on the Hill is Secretary Noem is less interested in doing the blocking and tackling of her day job that she is with promoting herself in taxpayer funded TV-commercials,"' one GOP aide told NOTUS.

There's much more in this link to the NOTUS article.  

Trump Administration Wants To Get Rid Of FEMA Aid By October 1. If You Are A Disaster Victim, You're On Your Own.

The Trump administration wants to get rid of the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, with
no plan to replace it. So I guess disaster victims
will be entirely on their own going forward.

 If a tornado, hurricane, flood, wildfire or some other big disasters destroys your house or business, you're kind of screwed.  

Even more so now that President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Ice Barbie Kristi Noem and other administration officials are getting more and more hooked on the idea of ending the Federal Emergency Management Agency's role in disaster recovery by October 1. 

Like everything else in the Trump administration, we don't know exactly what that means. I doubt  they do, either. 

The Washington Post suggests that top on the chopping block are efforts to help rebuild after disasters strike, and funding resilience efforts to help communities get ready for the next inevitable calamity. 

I don't know what all this means for the help FEMA provides in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.  

That immediate aid includes helping evacuate people, shelter people who've lost homes, provide food to victims that need it, and other services that come in the hours and days after a tornado destroys a town like Cave City, Arkansas, or a flood roars out of the mountains and trashes a town like Montpelier, Vermont.

Without FEMA, I don't know where the money to help disaster victims will come from.  Per WaPo:

"Without that federal money, government may need to raid their budgets for education, health car and other areas in order to pay for emergency response - and even then might struggle to cope with mounting disasters,'  said (Rep. Jared Moskowitz D-Fla)."

A couple examples of what we might be facing:  

North Carolina is estimated to have suffered just under $60 billion in damage from Hurricane Helene. 

The state's general fund budget for fiscal year 2024 was $29.7 billon. North Carolina has so far allocated $1.3 billion for Helene relief in the state.  Imagine if North Carolina had to foot the entire bill for Helene recovery, which seems to be what at least some people in the Trump administration would have liked.

Another more local example for us Vermonters.  The July, 2023 floods caused more than $600 million in damage across the Green Mountain State. Vermont's 2024 general fund budget was $2.3 billion....

It appears FEMA/Trump want states to pull money out of thin air for disaster relief. As the Washington Post reports: 

"FEMA's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, spoke for about 45 minutes on Saturday to a gathering of state emergency managers about the difficulty of change and how stats need to be more resilient and responsible in their disaster response efforts, according to one state-level official who attended.

Hamilton repeatedly used the phrase that states need to work with private partners as the 'performance enhancing drugs of emergency response,' the official said."

It's unclear how the "private partners" would help, and how they might be compelled to help. 

The only thing standing in the way of Trump are laws regarding FEMA, and since he thinks laws are just stupid suggestions, I'm not sure how that will help.  

Per Washington Post:

"'Eliminating FEMA wiki dramatically hurt red states. It will hurt rural areas It will hurt cities. Places will not recover,' Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida) said in an interview, adding that FEMA should be reformed but not eliminated,.

REFORM NEEDED

FEMA indeed needs to be reformed. Reform, though, does not mean screwing disaster victims and the states were calamities occur even more

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) has been pushing for FEMA reform for months if not years. His goal was to make things easier for disaster victims dealing with FEMA. Basically cut through the red tape.  Welch said the plan to get rid of FEMA does exactly the opposite. 

“The Trump Administration’s grand plan for victims of natural disasters is to abandon them—and it’s a complete non-starter," Welch said. 

After the immediate crisis, disaster victims get ensnarled in a bureaucratic mess, and Welch has long railed against what he rightly calls "FEMA's plodding bureaucracy."

Last year, all three members of Vermont's congressional delegation sent a formal letter to then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell calling for "long-term and structural reform:" at the agency.

The situation even created some strange Congressional bedfellows. 

Last fall, Welch and Sen Gary Peters (D-MI) joined, of all people Sen. Them Tillis (R-NC) and James Lankford (R-OK) on bipartisan legislation to reform FEMA individual assistance to help people escape FEMA's red tape. 

Tillis and Lankford are pretty MAGA. Welch and Peters are decidedly not MAGA, so this was quite a partnership. 

Had things worked out differently. this rare moment of bipartisanship maybe would have led to real reform.

But of course once Trump was in office, he blew it all up, like he tends to do. 

Here's an allegory of what went on here. 

Not long after I bought my house, I discovered carpenter ants had caused a lot of damage on one corner of the house.    The rest of the house was fine. 

So, we hired experts, who tore out the damaged wood, made sure the carpenter ants were gone, and fixed that corner of the house. I was able to live in the house comfortably while the workers fixed the exterior and living room wall in the southwest corner of the house. Obviously, there was no need to tear down the entire house to start over, right?

The solution Welch, Peters, Tillis and Lankford were working toward was getting rid of the "carpenter ants" in one corner of FEMA.

Trump's solution was to tear down the entire house, i.e. FEMA. 

We just had yet another wide ranging disaster across multiple states. The destruction is immense from tornadoes, flooding and other severe weather stretching from Texas to Ohio. 

Many of these storm victims will need help for months or even years. People whose house floated away or disintegrated in a tornado don't need bureaucracy, which was Senator Welch's point.

 But they also need federal help. Since there doesn't seem to be a plan in place to provide the necessary aid once FEMA evaporates later this year. I guess they're on their own.  

Kristi Noem, Trump's Pick For Homeland Security/FEMA, Pretty Bad; EPA Pick Not Great Either

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is Trumps not so good
pick for head of Homeland Security and FEMA

To nobody's surprise, as Trump keeps announcing picks for his cabinet and other top Washington jobs, it's clear we're all on our own in dealing with climate change, and the disastrous, stormy effects of climate change on the United States and the world. 

Earlier on, Trump picked a climate denier, Chris Wright, to be energy secretary.  Later on, we got a couple more not so great for the environment picks. 

Predictable but not good. 

KRISTI NOEM

Trump has picked South Dakota Go. Kristi Noem to run the Department of Homeland Security, which also oversees FEMA. 

That agency distributes billions annually for disaster recovery. With more and more people benign the way when disaster strikes, and climate change intensifying storms, this is an increasingly critical federal role, and one that will take someone willing to live in a world of reality when it comes to climate change. 

Judging from press reports, Noem is not up to the job. 

Back on December 4, the Washington Post has a damning piece comparing Kristi Noem's performance with that of Iowa during and just after a catastrophic flood event that straddled the two states on June 23

To summarize the article, Noem appeared to drag her feet in both activating responders, and then seeking FEMA help from Washington. She was more into posturing for Trump and MAGA apparently. 

Reports WaPo

"After spending million of taxpayers dollars to send South Dakota National Guard soldiers to the Mexico border, Noem did not deploy them to help prepare for the flood or cope with the aftermath. And she waited more than a month to ask President Joe Biden for a disaster declaration, leaving victims without access to federal assistance during crucial period of recovery and rebuilding."

Meanwhile, In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds, also a very conservative governor and another fan girl of Trump, was right top of the disaster 

Reynolds "oversaw a dramatically different response to the same flood just a few miles away. Reynolds immediately deployed the Iowa National Guard and requested a presidential disaster declaration before the floods had ended - a request that Biden approved the next day," reports WaPo.

Meanwhile, Noem busied herself with performance art, sending members of the South Dakota National Guard to the Mexican border as props to "prove" President Biden's supposed failed border policies and to prop up Trump's claim that he was somehow our savior from "invasions" of illegal aliens. Or something like that. 

Noem spent more than $1.3 million in South Dakota state funds through February to conduct this show.  

Even some Republicans in South Dakota were pretty aghast at Noem. Lee Schoenbeck, Republican president pro temper of the South Dakota State Senate, wrote on X, formerly Twitter:

"Gov. Kristi Noem sent troops to Texas and billed us, South Dakota taxpayer, BUT Noem said it's too expensive to use our guard to help our taxpayers fight a flood......Explain this hypocrisy???"

 Noem is also known to be skeptical at best regarding climate change and declined to take federal climate money for South Dakota. This also doesn't bode well in an age in which climate change is accelerated destructive storms and more and more people live in areas prone to storm surges, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters. 

As Politico reports, Noem is one of only five governors who wouldn't accept EPA planning grants that the Biden administration offered every state to help deal with climate pollution.

And she was the only governor to opt out a new $4 billion Energy Department program that sends money to states. That one is in turn distributed to residents for rebates on energy efficient home improvements and appliances. 

South Dakota's $69 million share would have been one of the largest amounts per capita in the United States, says Politico.

Politico also lists other troubling climate policies and moves by Noem. She was among 15 Republican governors who protested a move by the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose their risks from climate change. She was also part of a lawsuit seeking to stop the Biden administration from putting a price on the social cost of carbon emissions, though that lawsuit was dismissed.

 LEE ZELDIN

Lee Zeldin has been picked by Trump to be EPA 
administrator. Bad, but maybe not as bad as
the ones from his first administration>

Zeldin has been picked to run the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Obviously, it regulates a wide range of pollution and environmental issues. Climate change is an increasing part of that role. 

As the Washington Post describes it, Zeldin was once a moderate Republican who backed protections of wildlife habitat from development. 

Now, like so many Republicans who drank the Kool Aid, he's full MAGA.

Zeldin has said, "We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs ,and the make the US. the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water."

While keeping the United States' economy strong is a good thing, the outline he gave us there is the some of the most energy sucking, and potentially the most fossil fuel-using agenda you can come up with. 

More evidence hat Zeldin's environmentalism, such as it is, does not include combating climate change.

Trump has vowed to eliminate environmental rules that the make the fossil fuel industry faint dramatically onto the couch because those regulations are supposedly far too burdensome to bear. 

Zeldin never used to be this way, but like so many Republicans, he's suddenly clinging to Trump for dear life.  His past isn't horrible, but we'll see how he does if the Senate confirms his nomination.

When he was in the House from 2015-2023, Zeldin joined the House Climate Solutions Caucus, a group of Republicans who actually thought the GOP should play a greater role in climate policy debates. So yay!

Zeldin also in those days opposed Trump's idea to open up the East Coast to offshore oil drilling. Zeldin, from Long Island, reasonably worried an oil spill would wreck the important tourism industry there. 

Or not. That seems to have gone by the wayside.

Zeldin has since pledged to embrace Trump's drill, baby, drill approach to fossil fuels.

Still, he might be better than the two EPA administrators during Trump's first administration. Scott Pruitt, as Oklahoma Attorney General before his stint, sued the EPA fourteen times. He resigned from his EPA position in 2018 amid a series of ethics scandals.

Andrew Wheeler, who had been a coal industry lobbyist before Trump picked him, took over for Pruitt.