Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin called out CNN for misunderstanding a press release his agency issued, claiming it had “typos” that were not actually errors.
The press release was part of the EPA’s “most consequential day of deregulation” on Wednesday. In a video announcement, Zeldin said the agency is taking 31 actions to “advance President Trump’s Day 1” executive orders to “Power the Great American Comeback.”
CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joined CNN host Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” and claimed the EPA was moving so fast it was making mistakes.
“Today Lee Zeldin put out a video on X, they were putting out press releases with such a flurry, about 31 different actions and rollbacks, that some of them had typos or placeholders at the top. We have one of those there [on screen], ‘Trump EPA announces 000…’- you can see there,” Weir said. “It‘s sort of, ‘Shoot first, fill out the press release later.”
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The press release was titled “Trump EPA Announces OOOO b/c Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Rules Strangling American Energy Producers,” which Zeldin said was not a mistake but federal regulation code.
“Another media ‘fact check’ face plant where the fact-checker doesn’t have the slightest clue what he’s talking about,” Zeldin posted on Wednesday. “‘OOOO b/c’ is not a typo. 40 CFR Part 60 Subpart OOOO, or Quad O, is a federal reg under the Clean Air Act. Also, those aren’t zeroes, it’s the letter ‘O,’” he added.
The press release announced that the EPA is reevaluating regulations on the oil and gas industry from former President Joe Biden’s administration that Zeldin believes are halting development and manufacturing within the country.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said, “CNN’s chief climate correspondent failed to check code of federal regulations when reporting on the largest day of deregulatory action in American history. If Fake News CNN can’t figure out what EPA does, what does this mean for the American public?”
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Former President Joe Biden and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. (Getty Images)
Weir called the deregulatory actions from Zeldin’s EPA a “war on science.”
“They‘re going after, of course, as you mentioned, vehicle emissions, tailpipe emissions, power plant pollution, mercury pollution that comes out of there, coal, wastewater, oil and gas, coal ash, reporting CO2, you know, industries just kind of keeping a tally on how much planet cookin’ and pollution they‘re putting in to the sea and sky … no need to do that anymore,” Weir said.
He said that while most of the actions are “symbolic,” and added, “It still has to go through the courts. It has to go through Congress. But it just is the latest in an all-out war on science, around public health, around the environment, and of course, around the climate crisis.”
CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir during a segment with CNN host Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” said that the letter O’s in an EPA press release were “typos or placeholders.” (Photo: CNN screenshot)
Fox News Digital also reached out to CNN for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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