U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) appeared on “The Scott Jennings Show” on Tuesday to discuss recent developments in American energy policy and Senate procedures for confirming presidential nominees.
During the interview, Mullin addressed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin’s recent decision to rescind certain regulations. He credited President Trump for appointing Zeldin and described the move as significant for deregulating the economy. According to Mullin, “Well, it’s absolutely the right move, and thank goodness that President Trump put Lee Zeldin in that place. What you see with President Trump’s nominees is that they all have a backbone to do what is right. The EPA, underneath the Obama administration, grew into this agency that was the ‘see all and fix all and end all’ agency. And so, what I mean is there wasn’t any permitting that could be done for infrastructure. There wasn’t any permitting that could be done for energy. There wasn’t any permitting that could be done for manufacturing, unless the EPA signed off on it. And because of all these sue and settle cases that was being administered underneath this executive order to which President Obama had put in in 2009, it had gummed up the process. And so, this one single move by Lee Zeldin has had more permanent reform than Congress could have done in an entire bill. This is a huge, huge act for regulation, to deregulate our economy and allow America to lead from the front. Again, I can’t under state the importance of this one move by Lee Zeldin.”
Mullin also spoke about nuclear energy’s role in meeting future demands: “Because of this one single act by Obama in 2009 it basically stopped our ability for infrastructure when it comes to energy… Now let’s just think about we’re going to bring a nuclear power plant on line, what this single act did was make it almost impossible for a nuclear facility to come on line, which, by the way, is probably one the cleanest and safest ability to have energy and be able to meet the demands. Meaning with nuclear, you could bring up a nuclear plant and you can bring it down. And with the demand that is called upon during peak hours, you can’t do that with solar. You can’t do that with wind, but you could do it with nuclear.
“The only way that we were able to do that without nuclear would be either coal fired power plants or natural gas. The issue with coal fired power plants, because of this one act, you couldn’t build them, and they were actually requiring them to come offline. The thing with natural gas-powered systems is you couldn’t build the pipelines to be able to get the gas to the power plants to be able to actually provide the energy they need to meet the demand. And so it gummed up the entire system.”
He emphasized making these regulatory changes permanent: “Now you start talking about quantum computing or you talk about AI technology; we will not be able to stay up with the energy demands that the future is calling on…unless Lee Zeldin actually did this…Now what Congress’ point is that we need to make this move by Lee Zeldin; we need to put this in some type of permanent reform so it becomes law and can’t be simply changed…”
On Senate confirmations of presidential nominees under President Trump’s administration—an area where Mullin says there has been historic obstruction—he stated: “The thing that is something that’s never happened to any president of United States is President Trump is the only president in history not to have one single nominee go by unanimous consent or by voice vote…” He added details about how Democrats have filibustered nearly every nominee except Marco Rubio.
Discussing options facing lawmakers before August recess regarding pending nominees reported out of committee but awaiting floor votes—with many having bipartisan support—Mullin said: “Now…we have 55 nominees…that have bipartisan support…but because of all these procedural motions they are able slow down process.”
He outlined three possible paths forward: passing packages before recess; staying until confirmation votes are completed; or entering forced recess requiring both chambers’ approval.
Mullin concluded by describing ongoing work between Senate Republicans and President Trump: “Republicans…are all willing stay get this done….I’ve talked President now twice last three days about this….he’s also working priority list us if we stay here continue vote how he would want those racked stacked.”
