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Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., speaks at a rally in Concord, N.H., Jan. 19, 2024. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency when he takes office in January. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., speaks at a rally in Concord, N.H., Jan. 19, 2024. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency when he takes office in January. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
In theory, President-elect Donald Trump has few reasons to do West Virginia big favors. The state has only four of the 268 Electoral College votes he needed to be elected, and he cannot run for reelection again anyway, as the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limits a president to two terms.
But the state did support him overwhelmingly in each of his three campaigns. And Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is about to move up to a committee chairmanship or two now that Republicans have regained control of that body. Capito is the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. That committee influences matters of importance to West Virginians. Capitoòòò½ÊÓƵ™s influence as the ranking Republican member helped speed up the Army Corps of Engineers permitting process for the Nucor plant in Mason County when it appeared the Corps was taking its sweet time approving a permit for a large barge dock.
One thing that can help West Virginia is who Trump appoints to high-ranking positions in his administration, and it appears one such favorable appointment has been made with former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA under President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama has been, to put it bluntly, hostile to the fossil fuel industry for 12 of the past 16 years. With coal in the southern counties and natural gas in the northern counties, West Virginia is sensitive to any changes in federal regulations that restrict fossil fuel recovery, transportation and use.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who will move into the Governoròòò½ÊÓƵ™s Mansion in January, has spent a lot of time and effort fighting EPA regulations in court. He and other attorneys general scored a big victory two years ago when the court limited the EPAòòò½ÊÓƵ™s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The court ruled the EPA had exceeded its legal authority in proposing regulations that would induce a shift away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner sources. That, the court ruled, was a decision Congress needed to make, not an agency of the executive branch.
Zeldin ran for governor of New York in 2022 but lost to Kathy Holchul. During his campaign, he vowed to reverse a fracking ban imposed by Democrats, according to the òòò½ÊÓƵsociated Press.
The AP also reported that in an interview Monday on Fox News Channel after his appointment to head the EPA, Zeldin, 44, said that he will seek to ensure that the United States is able to òòò½ÊÓƵœpursue energy dominance ... bring back American jobs to the auto industry and so much more.òòò½ÊÓƵ™òòò½ÊÓƵ™
Trump is still in the early stages of appointing the people he needs to run federal agencies. Much can happen between now and his inauguration on Jan. 20. Appalachia needs fossil fuels, not an administration that wants to do away with them before cleaner energy sources suitable to the region can be developed and deployed. Zeldinòòò½ÊÓƵ™s appointment is a start. Appalachiaòòò½ÊÓƵ™s influential Republicans must continually remind Trump and his appointees of what this region needs from Washington òòò½ÊÓƵ” and what it doesnòòò½ÊÓƵ™t need.
