On Jan. 29, Lee Zeldin was sworn in as the 17th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After being inaugurated, Zeldin stated, “Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we will take great strides to defend every American’s access to clean air, clean water, and clean land. We will maintain and expand the gold standard of environmental stewardship and conservation that President Trump set forth in his first administration while also prioritizing economic prosperity.” These words purposefully convey a pure message but contain little detail or specifics. 

These words also seem to have been quickly disregarded. Zeldin wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) March 15 that “President Trump often speaks about his strong support for clean, beautiful coal. Our decisive actions will save the coal industry and its MANY jobs.” Coal mining is not only a health and safety risk for humans, but it ultimately leads to the warming of the planet through greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these health risks, the Trump administration is determined to revive the coal industry. In fact, Trump’s slogan regarding energy production in America is infamously known as “Drill, baby, drill.” 

This disregard for the health of our environment reminds us of why the EPA was created in the first place. On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire due to industrial pollution, as it had multiple times before. In response to this and other environmental disasters, then-President Richard Nixon created the EPA in 1970 and, two years later, the Clean Water Act was passed. Time has proven these landmark reactions have guided America’s environmental policies in an upward direction for decades. Now, in 2025, Zeldin plans to take us back to a time when the government did the opposite of protecting American safety and the natural environment.