The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrated the fight against climate change and promoted the concept of "environmental justice."
Unfortunately, few other people in America celebrated or promoted those concepts. We know this because a large exhibit at EPA headquarters dedicated to acknowledging those issues drew precisely 1,909 people over the last nine months.
The museum is now part of history. Precisely what "history" is hard to say.
The Biden Admin spent $4M in tax dollars on a museum to tell a selective story of @EPA history. It costs $600K per year to operate even though only 1,909 external visitors came through in the last 9 months. Today we are closing it. pic.twitter.com/ghTQ2MQX4N
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) March 31, 2025
Not everyone was pleased.
Lee Zeldin's reckless closure of the National Environmental Museum is a direct attack on public education and EPA history. Shuttering a space that informs citizens about environmental progress for mere cost-cutting is shortsighted and undermines our right to understand our…
— Richard Angwin (@RichardAngwin) March 31, 2025
The museum opened in May 2024 and was praised by then-EPA administrator Michael Regan as a demonstration of “our nation’s work to protect public health and the environment.”
Despite the prime foot traffic location, however, the museum has failed to draw many visitors. According to Mr. Zeldin, American taxpayers paid a whopping $315 per attendee — of which there were fewer than 2,000 in total. Museum upkeep includes expenses like $123,000 for landscaping, $123,000 for utilities and $54,000 for artifact storage.
Mr. Zeldin also criticized the museum for “conveniently” omitting “any mention of President Trump’s first administration” and for acting as a “shrine to environmental justice.” The EPA head declared: “I have pledged to be an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars, so this shrine to EJ and climate change will now be shut down for good.”
Mr. Zeldin promised, however, to educate the American public about “ the amazing work of our agency to provide cleaner, healthier, and safer land, air, and water” — without the half-a-million-dollar annual price tag. “ We are ending the practice of burning tax dollars on pet projects that do nothing to help this agency achieve our mission of protecting human health and the environment,” he added.
It's troubling that demonizing the extraction and use of oil and gas, despite its vital role in keeping all of us upright and breathing, was such a large part of the EPA's mission. Green activists couldn't function today without the gadgets and gizmos that they and everyone else take for granted, running on electricity generated mainly by fossil fuels.
The private jet contrails heading to and from climate change conferences say all we need to know about the commitment of these schmucks to "saving the earth."
Among some of the more fascinating exhibits at the museum was a New York City Subway seat in an exhibit about the pandemic. Yes, a seat.
I was going to recommend grabbing a port-a-potty from a construction site in New York and displaying it as an example of recycling. They could claim the contents were reused in the agency's cafeteria.
“There is something ironic about the EPA wasting money on a museum about itself when it is supposed to be focused on toxic waste,” said Rod Law, communications director of the Functional Government Initiative.
“Sadly, promoting special interest climate activism and growing the out-of-touch bureaucracy were hallmarks of the EPA in the Biden administration, and this museum was an unfortunate result of such policy," said Law. "Administrator Zeldin closing it protects taxpayers, helps return the EPA to its statutory mission of protecting the environment, and abandons past dysfunction and bureaucratic self-promotion.”
When "public servants" force the public to serve them, we have a dysfunctional government.
Your favorite PJ Media writers are working hard to bring you the best opinions and news in the business. Support us by becoming a VIP Member! We're giving you a 60% discount on the regular VIP Membership with the promo code "FIGHT." Click here to join and receive your discount.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member