The heartland institute zeldin speech took place in Washington where EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin delivered a keynote address to a Heartland Institute conference and defended the agency's recent policy changes.
Zeldin told the gathering he would rely on "accurate, present-day facts" and said "No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret," as reported by a news outlet.
He celebrated the EPA's repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding, telling the audience "Today is a moment to celebrate. It is a day to celebrate vindication," according to reportage of his remarks.
The administrator framed the repeal as a reversal of long standing assumptions and criticized previous deference to climate models and elite decision making, saying it was controversial to reject "the script that the world is imminently about to end," as he put it.
Reactions And Implications
The speech drew immediate responses from advocacy groups and scientists. Environmental Defense Fund Action placed posters around Hotel Washington critiquing Zeldin's participation and arguing climate denial does not improve Americans' lives, the reporting says.
Joanna Slaney of the Environmental Defense Fund said "Lee Zeldin is executing on the playbook of denial written by the Heartland Institute," as reported in coverage of the event. Other critics called the appearance "surreal" and said it amounted to rallying climate skeptics.
Supporters at the conference cheered references to the repeal. Heartland figures praised Zeldin and the policy change. Anthony Watts, a senior fellow at Heartland, praised the repeal by saying "Carbon dioxide, which is required for life on Earth and happens to result from every single bit of human and animal activity on the planet, is not a pollutant and never was," according to the source.
Heartland's president James Taylor used the conference platform to reject mainstream climate science, saying "The truth is clear: there is no climate crisis," and asserting increased CO2 and warmth restore "more ideal conditions" for plants, as reported.
The repeal of the endangerment finding removes the legal basis for many federal greenhouse gas rules. Reportage notes that the change eliminates all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks and could allow broader rollbacks for power plants and other stationary sources, a consequence experts highlighted in coverage.
Legal challenges have followed. Nearly two dozen states, together with cities and environmental groups, filed suits contesting the repeal, the reporting states. Heartland was described as a free market think tank that rejects the scientific consensus and has received funding from oil and gas interests, according to the coverage.
