U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is set to chair the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, met with Present-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday.

Capito praised former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin and his plans to “roll back regulatory overreach, unleash American energy and allow Americans to build again — all while protecting public health and the environment.”

“His skillset is well suited to implement the agenda of President Trump,” Capito said.

Zeldin previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023.

In a social media post following his “great meeting on the Hill” with Capito, Zeldin said he was looking forward to “collaborating with her to make the EPA work best for the American people.”

“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,” Trump said in his announcement. “He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”

Capito has said nominees to lead the EPA and the Department of Transportation will come before her committee.

“After that, we’ll probably have more of the undersecretaries — the head of Fish and Wildlife; the head of the air office, the water office, the chemical office, all these political appointees within the EPA,” she said.

Republican West Virginia Attorney General-elect John “J.B.” McCuskey recently said he believes Zeldin will do away with the EPA’s proposed set of rules for emissions for fossil fuel-fired power plants.

“That is obviously our hope,” he said. “I am very hopeful that the new secretary, Zeldin, is going to be a pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-West Virginia energy secretary.”

He looks forward to meeting with Zeldin and explaining the state’s contentions with the proposed rules, McCuskey said.

“And then coming up with a strategy to ensure that the EPA’s current Clean Power Rule, which is unworkable on its face, finds the garbage can so that we can continue to do the things that we need to do to make sure that Americans have cheap and reliable electricity,” he said.

Capito has also expressed confidence that an EPA run by Zeldin would scrap or alter the regulations.

“I think you’ll see this regulation and these rules that have come forward dramatically fall by the wayside, or be reshaped,” she said. “And I would anticipate that we’ll do that through our committee. It will not [stand] as is and cannot stand as is.”

With Trump poised to return to the White House and Republicans in control of the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, there is an opportunity to pass a comprehensive national energy policy, Capito said.

“We have to have a serious, all-of-the-above energy policy,” she said. “And not pick winners and losers.”