Mr. Zeldin, a Trump loyalist with little experience in environmental policy, would be charged with dismantling climate rules and perhaps the agency itself.
Of all the government agencies that President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to shrink or eliminate, perhaps none has been a greater target than the Environmental Protection Agency.
During the first Trump administration, the nation’s top regulator of air and water pollution and industrial chemicals saw its budget slashed, leading to an exodus of employees and weakened enforcement of environmental rules.
This time, Mr. Trump could go further.
President Biden rebuilt the E.P.A. and used it to enact two powerful climate regulations aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes and power plants. But Mr. Trump has already promised to “kill” the agency’s climate regulations, and people close to the Trump transition have recommended ousting E.P.A. career staff, eliminating its scientific advisers, and closing an office that helps minority communities that disproportionately struggle with polluted air and water. There is even discussion of moving E.P.A. headquarters and its 7,000 workers out of Washington, possibly to Texas or Florida, as a way to shed employees.
The man who would carry out the dismantling is a former congressman from New York, Lee Zeldin, who is set to appear Thursday morning before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The nomination of Mr. Zeldin baffled many, since he has little background in environmental regulation.
But Mr. Zeldin, 44, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York in 2022, is a Trump supporter who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election. Friends say he has a long and loyal connection with the president-elect.