The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry earlier this month hosted a business roundtable with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, giving Louisiana business leaders a rare chance to engage face-to-face with the head of the federal agency.
The meeting, hosted in New Orleans, brought together eight industry representatives from sectors including electricity, energy and transportation.
Patrick Robinson, LABI’s vice president of government affairs, says the roundtable came together quickly after a LABI member with federal government affairs experience alerted the organization that Zeldin would be in the region and was interested in hearing directly from local business leaders.
“We were really pleased that the administrator was willing to come down and speak with our members,” Robinson tells Daily Report.
A central theme of the discussion, Robinson says, was the EPA’s stated goal of cutting red tape while balancing environmental responsibilities with economic growth.
“They are really looking to reduce waste within the agency and to balance their responsibility for conservation—the clean air, clean water side of things—with a desire for economic growth and a desire to work with industry to meet those needs and provide opportunities,” he says.
Permitting delays were a recurring topic, with both the administrator and business leaders expressing interest in faster, more predictable timelines. Zeldin discussed adding personnel, including additional scientists, to increase the agency’s capacity to process applications while still allowing time for public comment.
Carbon capture and sequestration—a hot-button issue in Louisiana—also came up, though Robinson says it was one of several topics touched on rather than the focus of the meeting.
“The sort of takeaway there was that, in the grand context of the EPA, it’s part of the permitting process,” he says.
According to Robinson, the business leaders in attendance felt the discussion was a valuable one and were particularly impressed by Zeldin’s grasp of complex regulatory issues despite the relatively short time he’s spent serving as EPA administrator. Before being appointed to the post, Zeldin, a Republican, represented New York’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“One of the things that I and all the other attendees took away was that, for a guy who doesn’t come from an energy background in particular, his grasp of the issues and his familiarity with the processes were really impressive given that he’s only been in the role for a year,” he says.
The meeting was scheduled for an hour but ran about 15 minutes longer. Robinson is hopeful that LABI will host similar roundtables with federal decision-makers in the future.
