During a confirmation hearing for President Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan raised objections to past EPA practices of conducting armed SWAT-style raids on locaal miners and small mechanic shops in Alaska to check for compliance.
Speaking to nominee Lee Zeldin during his Jan. 16 hearing, Sullivan highlighted the 2013 raid on Alaska gold miners.
“We had a raid on placer miners in a place called Chicken, Alaska, under President Obama,” Sullivan said. “Over 30 armed agents – body armor – to do what? Do compliance on the Clean Water Act? They didn’t find one violation. They scared the hell out of the miners.”
Sullivan also objected to raids the EPA has conducted on small Alaska mechanic shops.
“Then, not to be outdone, the Biden administration has done these raids on small mechanic shops in Alaska,” told Zeldin. “They bring up EPA agents from all over the country – 30 armed agents – kicking in doors in mechanic shops in Alaska. It is just an outrage.”
Sullivan asked Zeldin if he would commit to focus the EPA’s efforts on “civil compliance, as opposed to kicking in doors with body armer, assault rifles, helicopters?”
“Look, I believe in an armed citizenry,” Sullivan added. “I believe in the second Amendment. I don’t believe in an armed bureaucracy. The EPA is a SWAT team. Do you believe the EPA should even have armed agents?”
Zeldin said the EPA’s actions were “outrageous.”
“The story that you told, and Senator [Lisa] Murkowski shared with me as well with regards to Chicken, Alaska, it led me – as somebody who’s going through this transition – to be asking questions as to how did that even get authorized,” Zeldin replied. “Who signs off on it? What is the standards that need to be met in order to even say yes to an operation like that.”
Zeldin is a former New York Congressman and Trump ally, who has pledged to help rebuild U.S. energy dominance, revitalize the auto industry and bring back American jobs.
