Zeldin attacks Whitehouse over country club membership in EPA budget clash
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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., sparred with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin during a heated Senate hearing Wednesday over the cost-benefit analysis of coal plants and whether the Trump-led EPA has enough to weigh whether hospital bills and insurance claims should be taken into account.
This heated back-and-forth led to Zeldin taking a veiled look at the White House long after the Democratic environmentalist had completed his questioning.
“We just want to stick to the truth,” Zeldin said.
“We want to stick to the science. If you don’t agree with them, if you don’t follow their logic, then they’re going to want to smear you … and I’m not going to moralize from people who attend all-white country clubs,” he added, referring to reports of Whitehouse’s family membership at Bailey’s Beach Club, a beach club formerly known as the Spouting Rock Beach Association.
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin attends a meeting with President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 13, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“I think the people who run this place are still working on it, and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet,” Whitehouse said in 2017, referring to allowing minority members. “This is a long tradition in Rhode Island, and there are a lot of them, and we just need to get on top of these issues.”
The interaction comes as lawmakers weigh President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request for the EPA; This framework alarmed Democrats over a proposed 50% cut in agency funding.
Zeldin’s clash with the White House underscores the sharp divide between the administration and Democrats in Congress over what kind of threat, if any, climate change poses and what resources the United States should devote to combating it.
Evaluating the proposed budget, Whitehouse argued that Zeldin ignored the secondary costs brought by fossil fuels.
“One plant in Michigan has already cost Michiganders $600 million in excess healthcare costs. That’s money out of consumers’ pockets and into the pockets of Trump’s big donors, fossil fuel polluters. Are you tracking the consumer costs of these coal plants?” Whitehouse asked Zeldin.
“Are we going to talk about math?” Zeldin responded. “Oh, this is amazing; I don’t even know where to start.”
“Are you tracking the consumer costs of these coal plants?” Whitehouse asked again. “Answer the question: Do you track the consumer costs of these coal plants?”
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Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, speaks at a Senate Environment and Public Works confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on January 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Zeldin began to respond by saying that the EPA was actually monitoring consumers’ energy costs but was being cut off.
“Where do you track the consumer costs of these coal plants?” Whitehouse intervened.
Leaving the monitoring issue aside, Zeldin turned to confront Whitehouse’s central argument about the cost-benefit of coal nationwide.
“Are you kidding? Even the coal plants stay open; do you think, in the math, it would be better for West Virginia to close the coal plants, put these people out of work, and tell them to learn to code?” said Zeldin.
“In your opinion, is this saving West Virginia? Saving energy access? Saving jobs?” Zeldin added.
After his allotted time expired, Whitehouse closed the line of questioning by arguing that the Trump administration would profit from energy-focused donors.
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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., moderates a Senate Budget Committee hearing titled “Default Law in America: Blackmail, Intimidation, and Billionaire Backroom Deals” on May 4, 2023, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
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“You’re increasing costs on purpose because when you increase costs to consumers, the money you make goes to Trump’s big fossil fuel donors,” Whitehouse said.
The EPA was awarded approximately $8.82 billion in fiscal year 2026. Trump requested only $4.2 billion for 2027; This is a decrease that would represent a 52% decrease from the previous year.
