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WATCH:
HUNT: âDo you accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that these greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest drivers of man-made climate change?â
Zeldin responded with calm precision, dismantling CNNâs narrative:
ZELDIN: âGreat to be on with you. First, itâs worth pointing out that all eight or so images that you just posted on the screen have nothing to do with this weekâs announcement. CNN has been using a lot of photos that show smokestacks from stationary sources like power plants, which is not what we proposed.â
He went on to highlight a crucial fact the mainstream media conveniently ignores: The 2009 endangerment finding leaned heavily on the most pessimistic climate projectionsâmany of which have been debunked or proven false over time.
âThe great news is that a lot of the pessimistic views ended up not panning out,â Zeldin said. âWe can rely on 2025 facts instead of 2009 assumptions.â
The conversation then turned to government authorityâsomething that the radical environmental Left often tries to stretch to its limits. Hunt asked if the federal government should regulate carbon emissions, expecting Zeldin to cave. Instead, she got a masterclass in how the law works.
HUNT: âDo you think the federal government should have a role in trying to combat climate change?â
Zeldin reminded herâand the audienceâthat the EPA doesnât have the authority to create law or stretch vague statutes beyond their intent. He emphasized that after the Supreme Court struck down the Chevron doctrine, agencies like the EPA can no longer take liberties with open-ended legal language.
ZELDIN: âYou have to follow the plain language of the law, and I canât get creative.â
He continued, blasting the previous administrationâs abuse of regulatory authority:
âI donât get to just make up (a regulation) just because a predecessor decided to fill in vague language in the law to do many mental leaps, to try to justify an electric vehicle mandateâŠTo strangulate out of existence entire sectors of our energy economy.â
Zeldin also called out the Biden administrationâs aggressive regulation targeting the coal industryâregulations that could cripple energy reliability across large parts of the country.
âYou were posting earlier a whole bunch of photos of stationary sources. Well, the Biden Administration did do a whole bunch of regulations to try to make, for example, the coal industry get regulated out of existence.â
Zeldin drove home a message thatâs been lost in the Leftâs climate hysteria: energy reliability matters. He noted that in places like New York, Democrats falsely claim renewable energy can replace baseload power, putting entire communities at risk of blackouts.
âIn order to unleash energy dominance⊠we are not going to regulate out of existence entire sectors of our economy.â
This isnât just about rolling back regulationsâitâs about restoring balance, respect for the law, and putting working Americans before the radical demands of climate activists.
In the end, Hunt tried to accuse Zeldin of taking regulatory action for political reasonsâbut Zeldin wasnât rattled.
ZELDIN: âThe power comes from the law and from Congress, not from our own creativity.â
This appearance wasnât just a policy debateâit was a wake-up call to anyone who still thinks bureaucrats can rewrite the law to suit a political agenda. And Lee Zeldin made it crystal clear: the Constitution still matters.



