Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA Select, Wrote Paid Op-Eds for Secret Shoppers

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Donald Trump’s selection to guide the Environmental Coverage Company, gained thousands and thousands of bucks in trade for consulting, speeches, and paid op-eds, in step with monetary disclosure paperwork.

The bills, first reported by way of Industry Insider, come with $186,000 from op-eds and speeches on my own. Zeldin additionally disclosed $45,475 in on line casino playing winnings. He earned a $775,000 wage from Zeldin Methods, which he opened after shedding the New York gubernatorial race and leaving Congress in 2022, and between $1-5 million bucks in dividends from the company. 

Zeldin is a conservative Trump best friend and pal to the fossil gasoline business whose balloting file is “remarkably anti-environment and anti-climate,” in step with Meals and Water Watch. As a member of Congress, he voted to slash the EPA price range by way of $2 billion bucks, cheered Trump’s efforts to withdraw from the Paris Local weather Settlement, adverse law that may limit companies’ talent to discharge “endlessly chemical compounds” into waterways and supported weakening EPA requirements within the Blank Air Act round particulate topic air pollution. If he leads the EPA, he’s anticipated to intestine environmental laws and cater to the fossil gasoline business’s calls for. He has mentioned that “power dominance” is certainly one of his most sensible priorities in main the EPA.

The previous congressman’s monetary disclosure presentations he has been raking in money partially by way of writing paid commentaries in distinguished information shops — with out disclosing in the ones items that he has been paid to jot down them. 

In July, Zeldin printed a column on Fox Information’ website online slamming New York’s Democratic lawyer basic for suing the large Brazilian pork manufacturer JBS for allegedly misrepresenting its weather affect.

“It’s the peak of hypocrisy that the state is now focused on JBS for allegedly deceptive customers for bobbing up in need of that 2040 trajectory whilst the state itself could also be failing to satisfy their very own not possible objectives,” Zeldin wrote.

Zeldin’s monetary disclosure presentations he was once paid $3,000 for that statement by way of CRC Advisors, the consulting company chaired by way of conservative darkish cash maven Leonard Leo. Whilst Leo is perfect recognized for his paintings construction the Ideally suited Courtroom’s 6-3 conservative supermajority, his company has represented company purchasers, together with oil and gasoline massive Chevron. 

The previous lawmaker wrote a sequence of op-eds on behalf of the lobbying company CGCN Crew. Over the last two years, the company paid $58,000 to Zeldin for columns printed in Newsweek, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Instances, and Actual Transparent Coverage, plus any other $40,000 for commentaries that weren’t printed. 

Within the Newsweek column, Zeldin slammed the Retirement Financial savings for American citizens Act, a invoice to create a federal retirement account program for employees who aren’t presented employer-sponsored retirement plans. Zeldin argued that the federal government simply needs “to get its palms on extra of your hard earned cash so it could arrange any other huge govt retirement program.” 

Round that point, federal information display, CGCN started lobbying for the American Retirement Affiliation, a lobbying team for retirement plan execs, on “problems associated with retirement securities.” The affiliation mentioned the Retirement Financial savings for American citizens Act would “decimate the employer-sponsored retirement gadget,” for the reason that matching contribution equipped by way of the federal government can be too beneficiant.

Zeldin one by one wrote a column within the New York Publish trashing Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 marketing campaign plan to decrease housing prices. 

“Those barriers on housing development have decreased provide, expanding the call for for present condominium devices drastically and inflating prices. Addressing those development roadblocks is the place govt motion is maximum urgently required,” he wrote. “As an alternative, then again, the Harris housing plan specializes in growing new laws that may derail this much-needed construction surge from ever going on — and including subsidies that may most effective inflate housing prices.”

The monetary disclosure presentations he was once paid $10,000 for this op-ed by way of Level Made PR, which says on its website online that it makes a speciality of “media placement and grassroots advocacy.” 

“We often paintings with third-party validators — together with former legislators, professors, business professionals, political and social influencers, and activists — to put up opinion content material demonstrating the deserves of our purchasers’ arguments from knowledgeable outsider’s viewpoint,” says the company. “We effectively pitch op-eds all around the nation on a weekly foundation.”