Zeldin said he and the administration “understand that there is a need for more baseload power” in order to protect our environment, economy, and national security. To meet those needs for baseload power, Zeldin recapped potential plans for expanding oil pipelines in Alaska and developing new liquid natural gas pipelines in the northeastern U.S. before shifting his focus to nuclear.
The nuclear timeline: When asked what he thought the timeline would be for America’s and Canada’s nuclear energy transition, Zeldin said, “As it relates to the Trump administration, while we’re here, we want to do everything in our power to fast track the process.” While not laying out a specific road map for that fast tracking, he did mark the uncertainty and cost- and time-intensiveness of nuclear projects as key targets that the Trump administration seeks to reduce.
EPA culture: Zeldin then turned the conversation to the EPA, saying that “one of the best ways to pursue permitting reforms doesn’t even actually require an act of Congress; it just requires an agency like the EPA to get out of the way.”
While not pointing to specifics, he criticized the work the EPA had been doing when he took lead of the agency in January. “When we came in, we found all sorts of examples of the EPA gumming up the works in ways that it didn’t need to, slowing down projects that we, over the course of these past few months, have been speeding up.”
Looking ahead: Agency-level decisions can affect change rapidly, but Zeldin said he hopes, over the next four years, that a more durable change in nuclear regulation is codified into law so that a future administration with less favorable views toward nuclear can’t easily undo the progress the current administration is working to achieve.
He concluded the interview by saying, “Nuclear is certainly a key part of the future. It’s something that we should be pursuing . . . . There’s a lot to it, including a big investment, but the fact is that President Trump is all in, his team is all in, and the National Energy Dominance Council is all in to do our part to help.”
Go deeper: To listen to the full interview, click here.
