President-elect Trump on Monday announced former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) as his nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Zeldin has a fairly thin track record on environmental policy, but was a vocal congressional ally of Trump’s in the president-elect’s first term. He left Congress for an unsuccessful run for New York governor in 2022.

The nomination was well-received by Zeldin's former New York Republican colleagues, with Rep. Mike Lawler tweeting that Zeldin "will do a phenomenal job ahead a critical agency to ensure we protect our environment while increasing domestic production of energy."

Environmental groups sounded alarm over former President Trump's environmental agenda, such as rolling back regulation and protections, but largely avoided criticizing Zeldin, who had a 14 percent score from the League of Conservation Voters on his congressional voting record.

Here are five things to know about the likely next EPA chief.

Vocal Trump ally in Congress

As a House member between 2017 and 2021, Zeldin was a frequent critic of federal investigations into then-President Trump around his campaign's alleged ties to Russia, and then a key defender during impeachment efforts.

In 2018, he called for a criminal investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for allegedly leaking to the press, and also cosponsored a resolution calling for a special counsel to investigate the FBI’s 2016 probe into the Trump campaign.

Zeldin was part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial in 2020, related to Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into opening an investigation into President Biden during the 2020 campaign.

During the initial House impeachment process, an NBC News analysis found that he spoke more than any other congressional Republican in........

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