Trump EPA chief vows he won’t take ‘morality lessons’ from Dem senator after heated clash

By Fox News · Fox News

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., traded barbs with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in a fiery Senate hearing on Wednesday over cost-benefit analysis of coal plants — and whether the EPA, under Trump’s leadership, had enough to weigh whether hospital bills and insurance claims should factor into the calculus. The heated back-and-forth left Zeldin taking a thinly-veiled dig at Whitehouse long after the Democratic environmentalist had concluded his line of 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, you don't follow their logic, then they'll want to vilify you… and I'm not going to take morality lessons from people who join 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 Spouting Rock Beach Association. EPA CHIEF TAKES ON MEXICAN 'SEWAGE CRISIS' FLOWING INTO US WATERS WHERE NAVY SEALS TRAIN "I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I'm sorry it hasn't happened yet," Whitehouse said in 2017, referring to allowing minority members. "It's a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them and we just need to work our way through the issues." The interaction comes as lawmakers weigh President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request for the EPA, a framework that has alarmed Democrats for its proposed 50% slash to the agency’s funding. Zeldin’s clash with Whitehouse also underscores sharp divisions between the administration and Democrats in Congress over what threat, if any, climate change poses and what resources the U.S. should devote to combating it. Whitehouse, who panned the proposed budget, argued that Zeldin was ignoring secondary costs brought on by fossil fuel s. "One plant in Michigan has already cost Michiganders $600 million in excess health costs. That is money out of consumers’ pockets, and into the pockets of your fos…