The Environmental Protection Agency is reversing course after decades of green energy and climate justice initiatives, dumping hundreds of those programs to save taxpayer funding and the focus to enabling U.S. energy production and other economic priorities.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday he is slashing the agency’s year-over-year spending by 65%, in part by getting rid of programs promoting climate justice and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
He already rooted out billions of dollars dedicated to those programs and is on a quest to claw back much more.
On Tuesday, Mr. Zeldin announced he’s retrieved much of the $20 billion the agency shifted to Citibank in the final days of the Biden administration.
President Biden intended to give the money to nongovernmental organizations, including left-wing groups, to administer climate justice initiatives. More than $3 billion has already been disbursed to some of those organizations, an EPA official said, but most of it — $16.9 billion — is back in the Treasury.
“We won’t be funding left-wing, ideological pet projects like the past administration,” Mr. Zeldin said.
Mr. Zeldin’s leadership takes the agency in the opposite direction it has been heading in since President Obama took office, when it became increasingly focused on transitioning the U.S. to renewable energy and ending the use of fossil fuels.
Mr. Trump’s first term curbed some of the EPA’s green initiatives but Mr. Biden revived and multiplied them. Now in his second term, Mr. Trump wants to get rid of anti-fossil fuel initiatives entirely and Mr. Zeldin is fully on board.
The Biden EPA sought to eliminate gas-powered vehicles and stop oil production. Mr. Zeldin said he’ll end those policies and make it the agency’s mission to speed up U.S. car manufacturing and energy production. He has recommended the Trump administration reverse the 2009 declaration that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are pollutants. The EPA has used the designation to limit emissions from cars, power plants and more.
Mr. Zeldin said he wants the U.S. to produce enough energy to meet Mr. Trump’s goal of achieving dominance in the artificial intelligence industry.
“One of the reasons why President Trump was elected was to help restore our economy. We must connect the greatness of American innovation with the greatness of American conservation and environmental stewardship,” Mr. Zeldin said after he took office in February. “We will and we must ensure our nation is energy dominant, whether bringing back American auto jobs, or turning the U.S. into the AI capital of the world.”
Environmental groups said Mr. Zeldin’s cuts threaten the EPA’s core mission to protect the American people from dirty air and water and other environmental hazards.
“The Trump administration’s illegal freeze on EPA funds threatens jobs, clean energy, and America’s credibility. Federal courts say the money must flow, but Trump and Zeldin keep breaking the law — hurting communities to serve fossil fuel cronies,” said Sierra Club President Ben Jealous.
The EPA was established in 1970 with the primary mission of ensuring clean air, land and water. It started with a budget of $1.4 billion and 5,800 employees, according to retired Deputy Assistant Administrator Chuck Elkins.
In 2024, the EPA employed more than 17,000 workers and spent $63 billion.
Mr. Zeldin said the agency can operate at just 35% of the cost.
“We don’t want the extra money and we don’t need it,” Mr. Zeldin, a Republican from New York who served in the U.S. House, posted on social media.
He is canceling more than 400 grants designated for diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental justice, which he said will save the agency $2 billion.
The EPA will pull the plug on the National Environmental Museum and Education center, located just blocks from the White House.
The museum, according to the EPA, “was developed to inspire and educate the public about the ongoing stewardship of the nation’s air, water, land, and public health.”
But Mr. Zeldin said the museum has cost the EPA millions of dollars even though it is the size of a one-bedroom apartment. It was set up, he said, “to praise environmental justice.”
The displays exclude any references to EPA’s operations from Mr. Trump’s first term.
Mr. Zeldin said other savings will come from ending leases on EPA buildings.
The agency spends $100 million annually on rent for buildings that Mr. Zeldin said “are overwhelmingly empty.”
He canceled $1 million in media subscriptions and $3 million in travel deemed unnecessary.
More cuts are coming.
“We will continue to pursue process efficiencies, improve technology, including artificial intelligence integration, reconsider grant funding, and where necessary, reduce staff,” he said.
