Lee Zeldin, Trump EPA Decide, Made 1000’s From Op-Eds Bashing Local weather Legal guidelines

• Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Trump’s choose to guide the EPA, made $186,000 from paid op-eds and speeches.
• A few of these op-eds criticized local weather insurance policies and ESG.
• The previous NY congressman additionally made $45,475 from playing at casinos.

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to guide the Environmental Safety Company, has made thousands and thousands of {dollars} lately from consulting, talking charges, and paid op-eds, in response to a monetary disclosure made public on Saturday.

That features tens of hundreds of {dollars} to write down about environmental and local weather change-related matters. In a single occasion, Zeldin was paid $25,000 for an op-ed during which he likened environmental, social, and governance investing, or ESG, to the practices of disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.

A staunchly pro-Trump Republican first elected to Congress in 2014, Zeldin left workplace after mounting an unsuccessful bid for governor of New York in 2022. As retiring lawmakers in each events usually do, Zeldin cashed in, establishing a consulting agency to advise company purchasers whereas enmeshing himself within the well-funded world of conservative political advocacy.

It is paid off. In line with the disclosure doc, which covers Zeldin’s main monetary actions because the starting of 2023, the ex-congressman has made a complete of $775,000 in wage earnings and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his principal agency, Zeldin Consulting.

He is additionally obtained $144,999 from America First Works, a pro-Trump nonprofit the place he has a board seat, together with $65,500 from paid speeches and $15,000 from an entity known as “Plymouth Union Public Analysis.”

He additionally acquired fortunate — actually — profitable a mixed $45,475 within the final two years from playing on the Golden Nugget, Venetian, and Atlantis casinos.

“All nominees and appointees will adjust to the moral obligations of their respective businesses,” Trump-Vance Transition Spokesperson Brian Hughes stated in an announcement.

Zeldin didn’t reply to a request for remark.

$120,500 for writing op-eds

The ex-congressman’s disclosure reveals quite a lot of earnings streams, together with substantial talking charges from GOP organizations in Florida and California, a Lengthy Island synagogue, and a Turning Level USA occasion in Michigan in June. In a number of situations, Zeldin was paid over $10,000 for a single look.

He additionally disclosed a mixed $26,775 in funds from Fox Information and Nexstar Media Group for “use of media studio.”

The doc lists funds from a number of public relations corporations for paid op-eds, itemizing the information outlet and the date of publication. The titles of these opinion items will not be listed, however Enterprise Insider recognized a number of that matched the publication and date included within the disclosure.

Among the many most notable have been a collection of paid op-eds on local weather points — Zeldin might quickly lead the company answerable for the federal authorities’s environmental insurance policies.

In an op-ed for Actual Clear Coverage revealed in March 2023 entitled “How Congress Can Cease the Subsequent FTX,” Zeldin known as on Congress to research ESG practices and the nonprofit watchdog Higher Markets, arguing that firms might use ESG to keep away from regulatory scrutiny in the identical method that Bankman-Fried used political contributions to curry favor with Washington.

The disclosure signifies that Zeldin was paid $25,000 to write down that op-ed. He additionally seems to have made a further $10,000 for one more Newsday op-ed in August about ESG and $3,000 for a Fox Information op-ed in July that criticized New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s local weather insurance policies and known as on her to raise the state’s fracking ban.

Zeldin was additionally paid to write down about different matters, together with $10,000 for a New York Put up op-ed criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ housing coverage proposals, $10,000 for a Washington Occasions op-ed calling on regulators to crack down on China-linked monetary platforms, and $15,000 for a Washington Examiner op-ed accusing the Biden administration of focusing on Republican-run states through Medicaid rules.

In some circumstances, Zeldin was paid even when the articles by no means noticed the sunshine of day. His disclosures listing two op-eds that have been by no means revealed, for which he obtained $10,000 and $30,000.

In complete, Zeldin reported $120,500 in op-ed funds. The unique purchasers who made these funds are unclear, and Zeldin and the Trump-Vance transition didn’t reply to a query in regards to the unique sources.

As with different nominees, Zeldin has agreed to divest himself from his consulting enterprise if he is confirmed as the subsequent EPA administrator, in response to his ethics settlement. His affirmation listening to is ready for Thursday, January 16.