Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said Monday that he is shutting down a museum in the EPA's headquarters in an effort to cut costs.
“EPA will be saving American taxpayers $18 MILLION in annual lease costs by moving staff out of the 323,000 square feet of space we occupy in the Ronald Reagan building in D.C.,” Zeldin wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“Under the Trump Administration, we will proudly be exceptional stewards of tax dollars!”
In a video released Monday, Zeldin slammed the National Environmental Museum and Education Center, which opened in 2021 under the Biden administration to highlight environmental and historic events dating back to the EPA's founding in 1970.
Zeldin said the museum had few visitors, was a waste of taxpayer dollars and omitted any mention of President Trump's first term in the White House. He described the one-room exhibition as a “shrine” that featured an “ideologically slanted” perspective focused on advancing environmental justice, equity and civil rights compliance.
“This agency has been spending $123,000 on cleaning, $207,000 for security, $54,000 on maintenance, and an additional $54,000 on storage,” Zeldin said.
“From May 2024 through last month, only 1,909 members of the public visited the museum. Even though it is free admission, this museum costs you, the taxpayer, $315 per external visitor.”
“We will no longer be funding ideological pet projects like the Biden EPA museum,” he wrote in a post on X.
The EPA administrator has pledged to push for deregulation and combat progressive policies ushered in during the previous administration.
“The death of the 'Green New Scam' is upon us and there are people who are congressional Democrats who are not going to be happy with our actions,” Zeldin told Fox News on Monday.
“I am here to fight for, as part of that Trump mandate earned Nov. 5, the people across this country who have seen a Green New Deal that if fully implemented will cost tens of trillions of dollars and people who cannot afford to be able to heat their home, to purchase a car, small businesses that are struggling to operate, people have been put out of work, and it's going to end,” he added.
His comments come as Trump administration officials have spoken out against electric vehicle rebates while aiming to curb regulation geared toward preventing pollution and mitigating climate change as the president promised during the campaign.
