Foreign Affairs

Lee Zeldin Says It’s ‘Very Telling’ China Wants To Keep ‘Biden EPA Rule In Place’

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (Screenshot/Fox News/"The Ingraham Angle")

WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin told reporters Tuesday that it is “very telling” that China would want to keep a “Biden EPA rule in place.”

China is purportedly seeking to shape American energy policy by submitting public comments advocating for harsher Obama and Biden-era rules on power plants in a move that has several energy sector experts concerned, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. In response to a DCNF question on the issue, Zeldin told reporters Tuesday that his agency is proposing regulatory action that “makes America stronger” and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “weaker.”

“When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provides a public comment regarding one of our proposed rules, my first thought is that we should do the opposite of whatever they want us to do,” Zeldin told reporters Tuesday. “It’s pretty striking that the Chinese Communist Party would want us to keep a Biden EPA rule in place. It’s very telling, and I would say it only provides me more clarity that we’re on the right track [and] that we’re proposing regulatory action that makes America stronger and the CCP weaker.”

The People’s Republic of China left at least three different public comments on EPA rule proposals that would cut or reform some aggressive Biden-era regulations that energy policy experts have previously told the DCNF could devastate America’s power grid. Zeldin has proposed several deregulatory actions to boost American energy while safeguarding human health and the environment, including rules that drew China’s attention in August.

Specifically, China urged the EPA to preserve its emissions rules for coal- and oil-fired power plants, maintain existing greenhouse gas standards for fossil fuel plants and refrain from imposing restrictions on foreign renewable fuel imports. The EPA introduced the three proposed rules to roll back strict Obama and Biden-era emissions standards and to update renewable fuel standards as part of “reducing reliance on foreign sources of oil,” according to the agency.

“This is the same regime that burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, without the pollution controls that have made America a world leader in clean air,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF previously. “Anyone opposing these reforms is, wittingly or not, aligning with China’s economic interests over America’s. Trump is right to put American energy first, and his critics should have to explain why they’re siding with the Chinese Communist Party over American energy and environmental excellence.”

China leads the world in pollution, emitting 30% of greenhouse gasses in 2022. Though some corporate media outlets have hailed China as a leader in implementing green energy resources like wind and solar and recently setting an emissions goal, China has also continued to churn out new coal plants, according to multiple reports.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from the Chinese Embassy.