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Speaker 1: We've got a very special conversation that we are about

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Speaker 1: to have with the EPA administrator at Lee Zelden. I

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Speaker 1: am coming to you live from Midland, Texas, where the

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Speaker 1: ep administrator is doing some incredible work for the people

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Speaker 1: of this country with deregulation. We're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: that he's also found an astounding amount of waste fraud abuse,

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Speaker 1: and also that the Democratic Party under Joe Biden's leadership

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Speaker 1: had basically radicalized the EPA to be nothing more than

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Speaker 1: a liberal soapbox for the Green New Deal and giving

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Speaker 1: money to their friends that advocated for global warming extremism.

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Speaker 2: We're going to expose all of that.

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Speaker 1: As sender Cruz and I set down with the EPA administrator,

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Speaker 1: Lee Zelden, I want you to hear more of what

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Speaker 1: was said.

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Speaker 2: It's truly incredible.

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Speaker 3: Ben, you and I are in Midland, Texas. Midland is

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Speaker 3: an extraordinary town. Midland is is the I believe, the

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Speaker 3: most entrepreneurial city on the face of the planet. It

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Speaker 3: is driving the shale revolution, it is driving energy production

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Speaker 3: in Texas and America. And we're here with a special guest.

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Speaker 3: We're here with the administrator of the EPA, Lee Zeldon. Now.

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Speaker 3: Lee is a good friend. I'm going to introduce him

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Speaker 3: to you momentarily. Lee is a veteran. He spent twenty

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Speaker 3: two years in active duty in the reserves. He was

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Speaker 3: a member of Congress for eight years from the great

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Speaker 3: State of New York. I'll tell you I actually went

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Speaker 3: and campaigned with Lee when he first ran. I went

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Speaker 3: to Long Island and campaigned alongside him. He is smart,

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Speaker 3: he is principled, He is a fighter. Lee was almost

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Speaker 3: the governor of New York. Lee should have been the

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Speaker 3: governor of New York. It would have been much better

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Speaker 3: for the entire state of New York if Lee had

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Speaker 3: been the governor of New York. But tragically, New Yorkers

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Speaker 3: decided they wanted more crime and less jobs and more insanity,

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Speaker 3: and so they voted to re elect Democrats. And I

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Speaker 3: will say the loss to the Great State of New

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Speaker 3: York ended up being a win to the United States

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Speaker 3: of America, because if Lee were governor of New York,

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Speaker 3: he would not have been able to say yes to

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Speaker 3: the job he's in now, which is administrator of the EPA.

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Speaker 3: The EPA has a massive impact on our lives, on

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Speaker 3: our health and safety, but also on the economy. And

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. Lee'zelden is the very first administrator

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Speaker 3: of the EPA in history to come to the Permian Basin,

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Speaker 3: to come to the middle of Odessa. He came because

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Speaker 3: I invited him to come.

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Speaker 4: Lee.

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Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome to Verdict Center.

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Speaker 5: Cruz, it's great to be with you on the ground

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Speaker 5: in Texas. You feel the freedom here. I mean he's

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Speaker 5: leaving the airport. I'm thinking of all that budget surplus

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Speaker 5: government being well run.

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Speaker 4: A whole lot of New Yorkers have come down in Texas.

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Speaker 4: They're not looking back.

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Speaker 5: A whole lot of people fleeing these blue states and

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Speaker 5: they're heading to these freedom loving states because they feel

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Speaker 5: like their money is going to go further.

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Speaker 4: They'll feel safer, they'll live life freer.

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Speaker 5: Senator Cruz, You've been at the tip of this beer

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Speaker 5: here in Texas and it's been an awesome day. When

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Speaker 5: I end up heading back to DC, as you well know,

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Speaker 5: I'm going to be heading back with some oil stains

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Speaker 5: here on the boots, my own little souvenir that you

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Speaker 5: provided to me and the staffers who enjoyed the trip

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Speaker 5: to the rig and speaking a whole bunch of.

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Speaker 1: Great Now, what's so cool about you inviting him down

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Speaker 1: here is you guys went to an oil rig basically

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Speaker 1: like in the city. You're on it, you're seeing what's

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Speaker 1: actually happening, and it's shocking that no one in the

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Speaker 1: EPA role that you're in has ever done this before.

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Speaker 3: Well, it was fantastic. So we started the day. We

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Speaker 3: went to a rig that is drilling right now and

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Speaker 3: they're drilling sixty wells and it's in Midland. It's in

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Speaker 3: the city, it's not too far from downtown Midland, and

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Speaker 3: they built baffles around the rig so it doesn't make

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Speaker 3: much sound, it's not disturbing people. And what they're doing,

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Speaker 3: they're drilling down. They're going horizontal, and they're going horizontal

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Speaker 3: under people's homes, under people's businesses. Now, this is a

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Speaker 3: bonanza for the people in Midland. Why because in Texas, look,

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Speaker 3: you own your mineral rights. You own the rights to

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Speaker 3: everything from the surface all the way down to the

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Speaker 3: core of planet Earth. And that means literally, as they

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Speaker 3: drill a two and a half mile long horizontal well,

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Speaker 3: and they're drilling sixty of these, and if they go

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Speaker 3: under your home, Ben, you know what you get. You

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Speaker 3: get a check every month, a royalty check. They've literally

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Speaker 3: got ten thousand people. They might just be sitting in

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Speaker 3: an ordinary three bedroom home with their kids playing out back,

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Speaker 3: and they get every week mailbox money of money coming

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Speaker 3: in because a mile or two miles down this well

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Speaker 3: is producing oil and producing natural gas. And we saw

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Speaker 3: it all. It was incredible and it was a lot

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Speaker 3: of fun.

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Speaker 5: And the check ends up coming for many decades, like

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Speaker 5: forty years. And there they said there was one thousand

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Speaker 5: workers involved in this project. I mean the benefits economically,

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Speaker 5: the work that they do to protect the environment. I

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Speaker 5: mean the innovation that they tap into, the way that

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Speaker 5: they are able to do things better for the economy

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Speaker 5: and the environment that so many other countries around the

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Speaker 5: rest of the world. The EPA administrator Ben should be

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Speaker 5: seeing this stuff firsthand. Every administrator, if you're gonna have

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Speaker 5: a concern enough to regulate these types of industries, you

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Speaker 5: should make sure that you get your facts straight, that

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Speaker 5: you're talking to people on the ground, and that you're

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Speaker 5: applying common sense.

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Speaker 4: And I think that I'm.

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Speaker 5: Gonna be able to do a better job going forward.

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Speaker 5: And we've hit the ground run and we're almost done

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Speaker 5: here with the first one hundred days of President Trump's administration.

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Speaker 5: We have a good team around us, and there's a

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Speaker 5: lot that we're proud of. I feel like today's visit

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Speaker 5: will only make our team stronger.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, one of the striking things ben as

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Speaker 3: Leih and I were touring the rig as he was

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Speaker 3: looking around, and we were hearing about ten thousand Midlanders

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Speaker 3: who were getting checks in the mail every month. I

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Speaker 3: gotta say it was interesting watching Lee's perspective as someone

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Speaker 3: who represented New York for eight years in Congress and

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Speaker 3: who ran for governor. And look, there's a significant portion

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Speaker 3: of New York State that has massive natural gas resources.

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Speaker 3: The Marcella Shale extends underneath Pennsylvania and New York. And

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Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania, just like here in West Texas, there are

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Speaker 3: people making enormous amount of moneys, ordinary families, school teachers,

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Speaker 3: and cops who are getting mailbox money every month because

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Speaker 3: of the resources being extracted from their property. And I

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Speaker 3: got to say, I think Lee was struck that he's

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Speaker 3: visited with those New Yorkers who have that natural gas

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Speaker 3: under their property, and yet idiot politicians in New York

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Speaker 3: won't let them develop it. And it was striking watching

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Speaker 3: Lee making that operation, and they're.

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Speaker 4: Desperate to tap into it.

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Speaker 5: And in New York, they've banned the extraction of natural gas,

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Speaker 5: they won't improve new pipelines, they're banning gas the new construction.

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Speaker 5: They're trying to move the state residence off of gas

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Speaker 5: power vehicles all together.

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Speaker 4: And that list goes on.

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Speaker 5: And those people who have all this resource under their property,

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Speaker 5: and they see over the border in the Pennsylvania where

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Speaker 5: they are tapping into it, the describe and they're driving

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Speaker 5: cadillacs on the New York side.

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Speaker 4: They're not bad policy in New York, good policy in Texas.

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Speaker 1: I want to go back to something you mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: and this has been a lot of the headlines that

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Speaker 1: you have been in, is about you uncovering just an

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Speaker 1: incredible amount of waste within your agency, and you guys

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Speaker 1: are really going after that.

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Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit more.

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Speaker 5: EPA's annual budget is about ten billion dollars. So far,

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Speaker 5: I've canceled twenty two billion dollars.

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Speaker 4: Worth of grants. And how is that possible, one might ask.

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Speaker 5: Well, in twenty twenty four, the amount that EPA obligated

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Speaker 5: and spent was over sixty billion dollars. A lot of

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Speaker 5: money came through the Inflation Reduction Act and Democrats were

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Speaker 5: in charge of Congress, and a lot of that money

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Speaker 5: went through EPA.

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Speaker 4: They created these green slush funds.

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Speaker 5: And in one case, twenty billion dollars which they couldn't

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Speaker 5: get out on their own fast enough.

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Speaker 4: They ended up parking at an outside bank.

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Speaker 5: Towards the end of the Biden administration to give through

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Speaker 5: eight pass through NGOs.

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Speaker 4: Many of them were brand new.

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Speaker 5: One is that Stacy Abrams linked ngo that received two

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Speaker 5: billion even though they only received one hundred dollars in

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Speaker 5: twenty twenty three and because of self dealing.

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Speaker 3: Wait, hold on a second, they went from one hundred

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Speaker 3: dollars to two billion dollars.

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Speaker 4: How crazy is that?

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Speaker 5: And then on page seven of their grant agreement, the

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Speaker 5: Biden EPA gives them ninety days to complete a training

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Speaker 5: called how to develop a budget.

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Speaker 4: Now, if you feel like this is you know it?

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Speaker 3: With two billion dollars, you don't need much of a budget.

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Speaker 3: Just spend on whatever you want.

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Speaker 4: Oh, I'll add another dynamic to it.

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Speaker 5: On page one of the grant agreement, they have twenty

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Speaker 5: one days to start spending the money. So from day zero.

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Speaker 5: They have twenty one days to start spending money. They

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Speaker 5: had ninety days to complete a training called how to

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Speaker 5: develop a budget.

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Speaker 3: Look, this is insane. And you described what you found

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Speaker 3: as essentially twenty billion dollars in gold bars that were

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Speaker 3: being thrown off the Titanic. That that the Biden administration

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Speaker 3: they realized, Oh, no, Trump is coming in, let's just

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Speaker 3: throw this all out the window. I mean, is that

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Speaker 3: what you found.

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Speaker 5: That's exactly what happened and what alerted Senate Republicans like

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Speaker 5: Senator Cruz.

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Speaker 4: This was something that Senator Cruz.

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Speaker 5: And I spoke about back in December when we met

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Speaker 5: before my confirmation hearing. There was this video that came

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Speaker 5: out of a Biden EPA political appointee, a Biden EPA

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Speaker 5: political appointe, talking about how they were tossing gold bars

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Speaker 5: off the Titanic, rushing and get billions of dollars out

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Speaker 5: the door before in inauguration.

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Speaker 3: Did this was a Biden phrase.

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Speaker 4: That was it was the Biden EPA political appointee.

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Speaker 3: I thought that was being clever. They called it that

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Speaker 3: you gotta be kidding that.

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Speaker 5: Yes, And they were doing it with an eye towards

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Speaker 5: getting themselves jobs at the recipient NGOs. So this was

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Speaker 5: us fulfilling a commitment to figure out go find the

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Speaker 5: gold bars, a commitment to bring those gold bars back

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Speaker 5: into the treasury on behalf of the American taxpayer.

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Speaker 3: But by the way, Lee, I will say, the last

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Speaker 3: Democrat I'm aware of who was intimately involved with gold

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Speaker 3: bars was was your former neighboring colleague, Bob Menendez, who

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Speaker 3: was sticking gold bars in his pockets and down his pants.

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Speaker 3: And and I will say Bob is currently a resident

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Speaker 3: of government housing.

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Speaker 5: Well there are I'll tell them about resident of government

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Speaker 5: and feeding off the taxpayer and abusing tax dollars.

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Speaker 4: This whole scheme is.

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Speaker 5: Riddled with self dealing and conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients,

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Speaker 5: and a lack of EPA oversight, deliberately reducing EPA oversight.

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Speaker 5: Twenty billion dollars a lot of money, And when that

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Speaker 5: goes through those first eight past entities, a lot of

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Speaker 5: that money goes through more passed through entities. And we

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Speaker 5: found with one program that there was money that by

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Speaker 5: the time it was getting to the ultimate recipient, it

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Speaker 5: was going through four middlemen. And each of these middle

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Speaker 5: men are getting their own fee for being middlemen.

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Speaker 4: And now I had one other thing. We've heard so

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Speaker 4: much about that.

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Speaker 5: We've heard the term climate change, we've heard the term

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Speaker 5: environmental justice. And you could build support for your term

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Speaker 5: by the way that you define it, the way you

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Speaker 5: argue and advocate for it. For example, one might say, so.

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Speaker 3: If you call it gold bars off the Titanic, that's

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Speaker 3: not the best messaging.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Amen.

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Speaker 5: If you say that that we need to combat environmental

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Speaker 5: justice because there's a community, there are communities that are

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Speaker 5: left behind and they need help, a lot of Americans

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Speaker 5: be like, Okay, there are communities that are left behind,

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Speaker 5: they need help.

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Speaker 4: What do we need to do. But here's the problem.

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Speaker 5: In the name of environmental justice, they will give money

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Speaker 5: to they're left wing activist friends instead of actually remediating

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Speaker 5: environmental issues. So one of the grants I canceled was

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Speaker 5: it fifty million dollar grant to a group called Climate

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Speaker 5: Justice Alliance. They say that climate justice runs through a

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Speaker 5: free Palestine.

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Speaker 4: I say, God bless that.

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Speaker 5: If you were gonna give if you're gonna spend fifty

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Speaker 5: million dollars in the name of environmental justice, that money

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Speaker 5: should go towards actually remediating an environmental.

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Speaker 4: Issue in the name of climate change.

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Speaker 5: They're willing to spend trillions of dollars bankrupting this country,

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Speaker 5: and we as Americans need to get smartest to what

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Speaker 5: the left has.

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Speaker 4: Been up to.

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Speaker 3: Such, let me say something on this, which is you're

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Speaker 3: really underscoring a very important point that when corrupt Democrats

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Speaker 3: waste billions of dollars, they're doing multiple things. One, they're

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Speaker 3: paying off their buddies and engaging in political corruptions. So

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Speaker 3: the two billion dollars that was given to Stacy Abrams

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Speaker 3: and her group was to buy new APT appliances for Georgians. Now,

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Speaker 3: mind you, Stacey Abrams ran for governor of Georgia. She

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Speaker 3: claimed she was the original election denier. She claims she won,

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Speaker 3: never mind the fact that she didn't. But the Democrats

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Speaker 3: are giving her two billion dollars because it turns out

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Speaker 3: if you give someone a brand new dishwasher, maybe maybe

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Speaker 3: they'll vote for you next time. It's just buying votes.

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Speaker 3: That's one consequence of it. But another consequence of it

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Speaker 3: is that's two billion dollars that's not being spent to

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Speaker 3: clean up a super fun site. That's two billion dollars

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Speaker 3: that's not being spent if you have a toxic waste dump. Look,

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Speaker 3: the EPA has really important missions. Every one of us

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Speaker 3: wants clean air and clean water because we all breathe

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Speaker 3: and we all drink water. And if you're wasting twenty

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Speaker 3: two billion dollars in cronyism and corruption, that's twenty two

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Speaker 3: billion dollars that are not going to clean up the

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Speaker 3: environment and make our kids safer.

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Speaker 4: Is that right? One hundred percent right?

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Speaker 5: And we're not here saying we want to take money

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Speaker 5: from a left wing activist organization and give it to

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Speaker 5: a right wing activist organization. We're talking about the money

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Speaker 5: belongs to the taxpayers. And if you're gonna spend the

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Speaker 5: money on protecting the environment, it needs to go directly

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Speaker 5: towards remediating in environmental issue period. I don't want to

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Speaker 5: spend a dollar more than what we need. And by

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Speaker 5: the way, when some people call someone comes to me

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Speaker 5: and they say I have an idea on how to

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Speaker 5: save five thousand dollars, that's a lot of money to me.

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Speaker 5: Let's save five thousand dollars. Let's save five million dollars.

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Speaker 5: We save five billion dollars. And what's so frustrating is

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Speaker 5: that there are people. When you say I have an

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Speaker 5: idea to save a billion dollars, the responsors, well, that's

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Speaker 5: only point zero zero three percent of some larger pot

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Speaker 5: of money. So you know who gives, well, I give,

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Speaker 5: and whether it's a B and M, we're talking about

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Speaker 5: one thousand dollars, whatever it is.

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Speaker 4: When you're a steward.

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Speaker 5: Of tax dollars, you need to treat it as if

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Speaker 5: it's your own money. You need to treat it with

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Speaker 5: even more care and concern. And unfortunately, there are too

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Speaker 5: many people in government who love wasting money and they're

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Speaker 5: paying it off the friends. In this case, we're talking

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Speaker 5: about former Biden and Obama appointed administration officials, former Democratic donors.

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Speaker 5: These are people who they are close with because of

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Speaker 5: that alliance, not because of their qualifications. Stacy Abrams and

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Speaker 5: that NGO doesn't get the money because Stacy Abrams is

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Speaker 5: so experienced in handling billions of dollars.

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Speaker 2: Let me tell you about Patriot Mobile real quick.

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Speaker 2: To two Patriot Lee.

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Speaker 1: Before we went to break there you were talking about

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Speaker 1: how it's pretty clear that the Democratic Party decided they

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Speaker 1: were going to take the EPA, radicalize it, use it

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Speaker 1: for their own personal gain and their friends and their

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Speaker 1: climate religion and the Green New Deal.

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Speaker 2: The list goes on and on.

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Speaker 1: Can we take a step back and explain to everyone

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Speaker 1: listening around the country, what is the original goal of

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Speaker 1: the EPA, Why was it created?

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Speaker 2: What is your goal?

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Speaker 1: So they understand just how far off the beaten path

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Speaker 1: we've gotten.

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Speaker 5: The core mission of EPA is protecting human health in

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Speaker 5: the environment. And what conservatives, moderates, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, independents,

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Speaker 5: what Americans almost all universally should be agreeing on is

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Speaker 5: that we should ensure clean air, land, and water for

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Speaker 5: all Americans. That's a goal that we often talk about,

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Speaker 5: and protecting the environment is something that conservatives care deeply about.

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Speaker 5: We believe that we can both protect the environment and

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Speaker 5: grow the economy.

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Speaker 4: This isn't a binary choice. But what was happening under.

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Speaker 5: The Biden EPA was that they were strangulating the economy

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Speaker 5: and they were passing these regulations that were costing trillions

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Speaker 5: of dollars, and they were designed to put entire industries

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Speaker 5: out of business. And Americans spoke up last November. They

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Speaker 5: say that they want a stronger economy, they want more energy,

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Speaker 5: they want more jobs. And President Trump heard that loud

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Speaker 5: and clear. The campaigned on a lot of this, and

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Speaker 5: that's why there's a National Energy Dominance Council, there's a

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Speaker 5: National Energy Emergency, and that's why EPA is doing its part.

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Speaker 5: We announced on March twelfth, the largest deregulatory action in

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Speaker 5: the history of the country. We want to fix this instantly.

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Speaker 5: We're not looking to pace ourselves. I'm not saying, hey,

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Speaker 5: stay tuned in twenty twenty eight. The solution is going

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Speaker 5: to finally be here. Take my word for it. I'm

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Speaker 5: saying right now, we are actively walking into you and

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Speaker 5: come the same time on all fronts. We're firing on

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Speaker 5: all cylinders. We will fix everything. That's our commitment.

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Speaker 3: You know. Historically, the EPA, I think, has been the

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Speaker 3: most dangerous and destructive regulator in the entire country. And

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Speaker 3: it is under radical Democrats, promulgated rules designed to destroy jobs,

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Speaker 3: to destroy entire industries. And it reminds me of a

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Speaker 3: joke that I have to bet I've told on the

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Speaker 3: campaign trail many times, which is what's the difference between

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Speaker 3: regulators and locusts. And the answer is, you can't use

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Speaker 3: pesticide on the regulators. And one time, actually out here

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Speaker 3: in West Texas, an old farmer leaned forward and said,

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Speaker 3: want to bet so I'll just tell you when you

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Speaker 3: come in and say I'm the regulator. West Texas is

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Speaker 3: a different place. But I'll tell you why. I'm so

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Speaker 3: thrilled that is doing this, because he he brings intelligence

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Speaker 3: and common sense and an understanding that we can't protect

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Speaker 3: the environment, keep our air and water clean. But that

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Speaker 3: doesn't mean being a crazy zealot trying to shut down

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Speaker 3: every job you can in America. And that's what under

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Speaker 3: Obama and Biden that they did and and and so

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Speaker 3: I want to ask and look, and there's a consistent

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Speaker 3: theme across President Trump's cabinet of bringing back a resurgence

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Speaker 3: of common sense, bringing back a dedication to jobs, bringing

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Speaker 3: back a dedication to blue collar workers. So I want

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Speaker 3: to ask. One of the things we do on Verdict,

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Speaker 3: we try to bring people behind the scenes and and

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Speaker 3: and so you're a member of President Trump's cabinet, let

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Speaker 3: me just ask you, what's it like to be in

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Speaker 3: Donald Trump's cabinet? Like, bring our listeners in what is it?

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Speaker 3: What does it mean? Tell tell us about the first

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Speaker 3: cabinet meeting you go to. What's it Like?

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Speaker 5: I always thought that there was pretty much two choices

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Speaker 5: for a cabinet. That a president can have a cabinet

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Speaker 5: where everyone gets along and maybe they're all yes men.

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Speaker 5: They don't have the relationship with the president where they

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Speaker 5: can push back.

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Speaker 4: Just everyone just tells the president what they want to hear.

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Speaker 5: And then option two is this team of rivals approach

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Speaker 5: where maybe people don't get along with each other, there's

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Speaker 5: some conflict, and from that conflict and debate, maybe you

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Speaker 5: end up with.

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Speaker 4: A with a better cabinet amember.

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Speaker 5: You know from the Abe Lincoln Team of Rivals, a

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Speaker 5: great book worth reading if anyone out there hasn't read

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Speaker 5: it yet. President Trump has tried something different. I really

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Speaker 5: think this this is the model of how to do it.

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Speaker 5: He has a cabinet where everyone gets along with each other.

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Speaker 5: There's great chemistry, and we all have the relationship with

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Speaker 5: President Trump where we could tell him where we disagree

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Speaker 5: on any topic.

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Speaker 4: We all have that.

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Speaker 5: Relationship with him where we are able to share our

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Speaker 5: candid thoughts, our candidate recommendations. And I think this cabinet

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Speaker 5: stronger for it. I think that the president and this

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Speaker 5: administration his country is stronger for it. Inside those cabinet

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Speaker 5: meetings like we just had one last week, it was

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Speaker 5: a low over three hours long. It was so positive

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Speaker 5: and it was so substantive, and we're all talking about

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Speaker 5: what we are working on in our own agency. In

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Speaker 5: many cases, it's working with other agencies and the partnerships.

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Speaker 5: I'm a member of the National Energy Dominance Council, I'm

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Speaker 5: a member of the Make America Healthy Again Commission with

442
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 5: Secretary Kennedy, and that cooperation between agencies ends up allowing

443
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,640
Speaker 5: us to accomplish so many other goals. Like Senator Cruz

444
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:37,359
Speaker 5: has been fighting for permitting reform. Well, one of the

445
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 5: best ways to achieve permitting reform is to have agencies

446
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 5: working on this stuff at the same time, rather than

447
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,439
Speaker 5: having to go through twelve months in one agency and

448
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 5: then you go to some other agency and they're guming

449
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 5: up the workshare, and the person who's applying for the

450
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:52,919
Speaker 5: permise like, hey, why don't you just tell us that

451
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,199
Speaker 5: a year ago. Well, we want to make sure that

452
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 5: we are doing things efficiently in a way that we

453
00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 5: were all making the American public proud. It's a new

454
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 5: way to be to have a cabinet. I think this

455
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,639
Speaker 5: is the way president should do it going forward.

456
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 3: You know, I read something last week that was amazing,

457
00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:10,639
Speaker 3: which is Donald Trump, in three months of his second

458
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 3: term has already answered more press questions at cabinet meetings

459
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,879
Speaker 3: than Joe Biden did in four years as president. Although

460
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 3: to be fair, Biden may have been answering questions of

461
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 3: voices he was hearing in his head, So I don't

462
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 3: know about that. All right, let me ask another question,

463
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 3: which is, how did you find out you were gonna

464
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 3: be epa administrator? Tell us what it's like. So you're

465
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 3: sitting there minding your own business, like, how did this

466
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 3: appointment come about?

467
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,400
Speaker 5: So it was a call on a Sunday morning right

468
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 5: after the election. I spoke to the President a few

469
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 5: times during that week after the election, and the President

470
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 5: was thinking through some different options. I didn't know what

471
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 5: he was going to ask me to do. Was clear

472
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 5: that he wanted me to come join the team. Sunday morning, though.

473
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 5: He calls me up and he is locked in, he

474
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 5: is decisive, he has motivated. He had this vision of

475
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,119
Speaker 5: exactly what we can be accomplishing at EPA, and his

476
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:06,719
Speaker 5: motivation motivated me.

477
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:09,360
Speaker 4: I said, if you love this idea, and I mean,

478
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:09,959
Speaker 4: I am all in.

479
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 5: I was like, actually, what I say was if you

480
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 5: like it, I love it, and then the rest is history.

481
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 5: And one of the cool things about contacting me on

482
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 5: November eleventh, when you still have two and a half

483
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:24,159
Speaker 5: months before a confirmation, is that is a runway to

484
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 5: get fully staffed up, to fully prepare for how to

485
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,239
Speaker 5: hit the ground running on once we got there. So

486
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 5: the President when he called me up, he had like

487
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,280
Speaker 5: fifteen specific ideas he wanted us to We're just talking

488
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 5: about permitting reform. He's talking about making America the AI

489
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 5: capital the world. He wants to bring back American auto jobs,

490
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 5: he wants to unleash energy dominance.

491
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:46,960
Speaker 4: And he had a lot of specific ideas on how

492
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 4: to do it. Now.

493
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 5: I don't know what that conversation was like eight years

494
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 5: earlier when he was calling his then nominee to be

495
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 5: EPA administrator, But I will tell you when he called

496
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 5: me up, he was deeply knowledge on everything that we

497
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 5: needed to do to do a great job.

498
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 2: Let me ask you another question.

499
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: For some of you that are listening they hear the EPA,

500
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: one of the things that you're trying to do is

501
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,639
Speaker 1: deregulate and allow for things to flourish that can have

502
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 1: a huge impact on every American's life. That can be

503
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: at the gas pump, that can be with natural gas,

504
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: or house that can be with countless other things. Give

505
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 1: a list of just how important the EPA is and

506
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: how much it touches in average Americans life.

507
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: They may not even realize.

508
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 5: One is the EPA has tremendous power to gum up

509
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 5: the works on a lot. I mean, if you want

510
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 5: permitting reform before you even have to go through a

511
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 5: legislative process. EPA could speed up a whole lot of

512
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 5: permitting timelines by just getting out of the way.

513
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 4: There is incredible power. Now.

514
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,239
Speaker 5: There's a whole bunch of landmark historic laws that are

515
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 5: on the books. Clean Air Act, Clean Water Acts, Safe

516
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 5: Drinking Water Act, Circle of for super Funds, Toxic Substances,

517
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 5: Chemicals Act Control Act. There's a lot of laws around

518
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 5: the books that have EPA doing different work. It is

519
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 5: important for us to ensure that we are not overstepping

520
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,439
Speaker 5: these powers. And what we can do through our deregulatory

521
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:16,439
Speaker 5: action amounts to what is the largest deregulatory environment in

522
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,119
Speaker 5: the history of the country. There's never been a year,

523
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,399
Speaker 5: there's never been a presidential administration or a year in

524
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 5: the past where the entire federal government did more deregulation

525
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 5: than the EPA will do in twenty twenty five.

526
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,360
Speaker 4: That's how much we could accomplish in such a short time.

527
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,479
Speaker 3: That's incredible. You told a story earlier today about the

528
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,719
Speaker 3: EPA's involvement in cleaning up the California wildfires, and it's

529
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 3: a good example of how it impacts people's lives. We've

530
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 3: got a minute till we have to break, but tell

531
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 3: us in that minute about like you wouldn't necessarily think

532
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 3: the EPA is involved in dealing with wildfires, but you

533
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 3: guys are deeply involved.

534
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 5: As soon as the wildfires hit Los Angeles, over thirteen

535
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 5: thousand properties destroyed, President Trump comes into office. He inherits

536
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 5: it happened a few days before he got there. He

537
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,360
Speaker 5: signs the executive order. He says, EPA, you have thirty

538
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,880
Speaker 5: days to do your entire Phase one hazardous material removal

539
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 5: before Phase two starts, which is the Army Corps of

540
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 5: Engineers doing their debris removal.

541
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 3: And like with the wildfires, you had people's homes that

542
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 3: burn to the ground. There's a lot of toxic sludge.

543
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,439
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a mess. It's dangerous. Like fires produce

544
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 3: bad stuff, and you guys had to figure out how

545
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 3: to clean it up. But do it in thirty days.

546
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 4: Yeah.

547
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 5: First the response was that's impossible. This is going to

548
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 5: take you until the summer at best. It's going to

549
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 5: take a few months for sure. The lithium ion batteries

550
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 5: were all over this particular area. We got it done

551
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 5: in less than thirty days after ramping up to fifteen

552
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 5: hundred workers. Proud of the effort from EPA. We do

553
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,479
Speaker 5: a lot like this that the American public might not

554
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 5: know about. And that's why in just a couple of days,

555
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 5: we're heading to the Tijuana area in southern California, where

556
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 5: a lot of Mexican raw sewage is entering for decades.

557
00:27:57,800 --> 00:27:58,439
Speaker 4: We need to end it.

558
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: The other one that a lot of Americans will remember,

559
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,679
Speaker 1: and that was the Trained derailment, and it seemed like

560
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 1: the government was picking winners and losers with that cleanup

561
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 1: or lack thereof. You guys have also gotten involved with

562
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: that because what you did in the wildfires in California

563
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: is incredible. That's what every American should get, no matter

564
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: where they live, and politics shouldn't come into it.

565
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 5: This is something that really showed then Junior Senator JD.

566
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 5: Vance as someone who understands leadership in a time of crisis,

567
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,399
Speaker 5: when disaster strikes, your instinct as a leader should be

568
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 5: to show up at that site and to be the

569
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 5: voice of the people. And what was wild was JD

570
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 5: was like the only one there I think that might

571
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 5: be cong from Bill Johnson's district.

572
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 3: Well, to be fair, Donald Trump came to yeah, well,

573
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 3: and it was j and JD not Joe Biden, not

574
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 3: Pete budage Edge, but Donald Trump came.

575
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 4: That's right.

576
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 5: And I remember the conversations where JD was engaging with

577
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 5: President Trump to make sure that President Trump was there.

578
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 5: And this was all in the initial days and weeks

579
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 5: after disaster struck. Yes, and a lot of people were wondering, well,

580
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 5: where is this person, where is that person, Where is

581
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 5: this agency?

582
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 4: Where's that agency?

583
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 5: It should be This is the ultimate gut check and

584
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 5: an instinct check of just.

585
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 3: It's amazing because Biden, the Democrats, they really liked Palestinians.

586
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 3: You would think they would have gone, oh my.

587
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 4: Gosh, you know, all right.

588
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 3: For the record, Lezelden is officially speechless. He doesn't know

589
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 3: what to do with that smart ass comment.

590
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 5: I'll tell you it was a It was such a

591
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 5: missed opportunity to lead and that EPA. Over the course

592
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 5: of time, they ended up being two hundred and twenty thousand.

593
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 5: We saw two hundred twenty thousand tons of contaminated soil removed,

594
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 5: We saw tens of millions of gallons of water removed.

595
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 5: They ended up becoming a massive EPA effort that actually

596
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 5: is still ongoing and in a way for the environmental

597
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 5: and human impacts. There's going to be testing going on

598
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:04,720
Speaker 5: for a long time to come. And I would encourage

599
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 5: anyone who's out there listening, who is in that community,

600
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 5: in the in the area, that that maybe you used

601
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 5: to go to East Palestine, but now you take a detour,

602
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 5: you go somewhere else. We all need to do our

603
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 5: part to help bring East Palestine, Ohio back and very

604
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 5: important to the Vice President, but unfortunately too many of

605
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 5: these cases have shown that lack of leadership.

606
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 3: Well and tell us what you're doing in Tijuana, because

607
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 3: it's it's an amazing here.

608
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 5: You have an issue where for decades Mexican raw sewage

609
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 5: has been coming across the border. It's been poured into

610
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 5: the Tijuana River. It ends up contaminating water and air.

611
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 5: We have Navy seals getting sick. They have to do

612
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 5: training somewhere else. So we have decided enough is enough.

613
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,840
Speaker 5: We're going to Tijuana in the coming days. I can't

614
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 5: wait to get there. We're gonna be on the US

615
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 5: side of that border. We have a whole plan of action.

616
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 3: I just warning you when you're in the cabinet, what

617
00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 3: happens in Tijuana does not stay in Tijuana.

618
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, sir, good great, great advice.

619
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 5: And especially if you drink the water, you'll be bringing

620
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 5: that back to you, back with you to d C.

621
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 5: So listen, it's something that we're gonna step up on

622
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 5: and tackle and we're proud of it.

623
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 4: E p A wants to assist. And these are Americans

624
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 4: that we see over there California.

625
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 5: Do they vote red or blue? All your listeners know

626
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 5: the answer to that one. It doesn't matter.

627
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 3: But look, you're you're you're cleaning that crap up.

628
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 4: Literally.

629
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 3: I mean that that is valuable. That's what we want

630
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 3: the EPA to be doing. That's important. Let me let

631
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 3: me ask you. So, so you and I are in

632
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 3: in Midland, Texas. We spent the day. We started by

633
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 3: going to to a rig that was drilling an oil well.

634
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 3: We then had a roundtable and actually when you were

635
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 3: being confirmed and you came by my office, you and

636
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 3: I have been good friends for over a decade, but

637
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:52,200
Speaker 3: when you were being confirmed, I said, I want to

638
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 3: ask you to commit to come the Midland, Texas and

639
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 3: sit down with with oil and gas leaders, with entrepreneurs,

640
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 3: with people that are producing energy and hear from them.

641
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 3: And it's amazing. You're the first EPA administrator in history

642
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 3: to come to the middle of Odessa, which is astonishing.

643
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 3: It's like saying an ag secretary had never been to Iowa.

644
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 3: It's like saying a secretary of State had never been

645
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: to the United Kingdom or never been to Israel. Like

646
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 3: your job, every EPA administrator should be in the Permian base.

647
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 3: And given the importance of it and the involvement of

648
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 3: the EPA, So tell us about you met with wildcatters

649
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 3: and business leaders, a lot of people that are good

650
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 3: friends of mine. Give us your impression of the folks

651
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 3: you met and and what you learned on this trip.

652
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 3: Was it valuable?

653
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 4: Salt of the earth? Job creators?

654
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 5: You could just imagine how much sweat equity was around

655
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 5: that table of people who have poured their lives, their heart,

656
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 5: blood tears, creating jobs, providing energy to Texans and beyond.

657
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 5: And these people need us to be thanking them, to

658
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 5: be to be praising them for their good work, to

659
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 5: be supporting them as opposed to using our power to

660
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 5: try to make it more difficult for them.

661
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 4: We shouldn't be trying to.

662
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 3: So, by the way, these guys are all close friends

663
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 3: and buddies of mine. I have had great joy in

664
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 3: recent weeks and months asking them how much they're like

665
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 3: Billy Bob Thornton. Have they ever been tied up and

666
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 3: had a mask over their head? Have they been covered

667
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 3: in gasoline by cartels? Our host Bill Holmes, great, great,

668
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 3: great friend, Landman, very successful businessman, I asked him. So,

669
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 3: by the way, if you haven't watched Landman, you should.

670
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 3: It's the best show on television. I did play for

671
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 3: President Trump in the Oval Office last week, the segment

672
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 3: from Landman where Billy Bob Thornton talks to the left

673
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 3: wing environmental lawyer about windmills. It's the best three minutes

674
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 3: on television of our lifetime. And I will say, at

675
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 3: least the Landman I know in Midland tell me that

676
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 3: that they murder fewer people than they do in the show.

677
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:03,920
Speaker 3: It's still a great show.

678
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 5: And for Billy Bob, if you're out there listening, that

679
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 5: was some That was a free sponsorship from Senator Ted Cruz.

680
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 5: So you're you're lucky that you have that fan playing

681
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 5: it for President Trump in the Oval bringing a great,

682
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:17,280
Speaker 5: a great show to the people.

683
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,280
Speaker 4: And and listen, we need to get smart with energy policy.

684
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 5: There are people promoting win as an intermittent sources if

685
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 5: that's a substitute for base load power for all of

686
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 5: you out there listening, let's let's get

687
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 4: Smart, educate, advocate the people who are around policy