E.P.A. Chief to Headline Event by Group That Says There's No Climate Crisis

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/climate/zeldin-epa-heartland-institute.html

E.P.A. Chief to Headline Event by Group That Says There’s No Climate Crisis
Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator, will address a Heartland Institute forum in April. The organization says speakers will challenge the climate crisis “narrative.”
By Lisa Friedman
March 20, 2026, 11:48 a.m. ET

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will be the opening speaker at a conference next month sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a group that rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, the organization has announced.

President Trump routinely mocks climate change as a “hoax” and his administration has rolled back protections for air and water, and has tried to give up the power to regulate greenhouse gases. Yet scientists and one former Republican E.P.A. administrator still expressed alarm at the idea of the nation’s chief environmental official speaking at an event for a research organization that argues there is “no such thing” as climate-driven floods, hurricanes and extreme heat.

The Heartland Institute, which is based in Schaumburg, Ill., describes itself as a think tank that promotes free-market solutions to social and economic problems. The organization does not disclose its funder list, and its website says most of its funding comes from individual donors and foundations. In the past, it has received financial support from oil and gas interests as well as the Mercer Family Foundation, a donor to conservative causes.

The group argues that the burning of fossil fuels is not driving a crisis and that a warming planet may bring benefits. The director of the Heartland Institute’s environmental center, H. Sterling Burnett, has claimed “there is no physical evidence to support the theory humans are causing a dangerous global warming.”

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