EPA Chief Lee Zeldin says agency is working ‘around the clock‘ to clean up L.A. Fires
The Globe was on the ground Thursday in Pacific Palisades. The fire destruction was horrific. The charred smell of homes and their contents is prevalent. Pacific Palisades residents – some who lost their homes completely, and some whose homes were still intact – were present and determined to get answers.
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President Trump’s Special Envoy Ric Grenell is the White House representative on the ground in California, making things happen with residents, and representatives from federal, state and local agencies.
Grenell and newly confirmed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin met with residents amid the fire devastation in the Pacific Palisades. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Major General Jason Kelly was there, as was Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regional administrator Bob Fenton, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, as were many colleagues and staffers, talking with residents.
Grenell facilitated discussion between residents, who are living in motels, hotels VRBO and AirBNB rentals, and government officials, to solve residents’ immediate and prepare for long term concerns.
And notably, at one point, Grenell warned federal, state and local officials to cut the bullshit pushing DEI for subcontractors on debris removal. He told them to bring in all contracting teams who want to help.
“That bullshit can’t happen,” Ric Grenell said. He said that he was aware that hiring contractors for debris removal of the Palisades’ burned homes was stymied because they were trying to find “the right mix” of DEI-approved contractors. Grenell advocated for allowing contractors from all over the country to work in LA. “I don’t care about the color of their skin. “I don’t care if they’re in a wheelchair. We want people to be able to do the job and get it done, and not hold up because we have some quota system.”
Breitbart’s Editor at large, Joel Pollak, a Palisades resident, showed the Globe where the fire started at the top of a nearby hill next to Kobe Bryant’s old home. And then it jumped across Palisades Drive and burned most of the Palisades homes, schools and businesses, down the hills to the ocean within 36 hours.
The beautiful high-end mall built by developer Rick Caruso is in tact and looks as if it could open tomorrow. Locals told the Globe that Carusso hired private fire fighters, water tankers, and had hardened his mall for fire, commenting that this is what could and should have been possible for all of the Palisades.
The Globe asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin what his biggest, “macro” concern was.
He said that together with President Donald Trump, they have shortened the EPA timeline from 90-days to 30-days.
And they’ve already done 7,000 home assessments, Zeldin said. The EPA’s role is to is perform the hazardous waste cleanup, which the EPA says is the largest in the history of the agency. “The agency has successfully removed 80 electric vehicles and bulk energy storage systems, which are extremely dangerous to the public and the environment and will continue ramping up such operations.”
The biggest issues for the residents is getting a formal “right of entry” back into the homes still standing, from the county.
Mayor Bass told residents that groups of neighborhoods could opt-in together as a neighborhood and get more debris removal and clean up done at one time.
Grenell warned that there will be strings and conditions on the federal funds coming to LA because of California’s untenable state and local environmental regulations, and crazy laws.
And Grenell said, “Whether it’s FEMA, whether it’s the Army Corps of Engineers, stop the duplicitous messaging. We need to tell these residents, ‘you cleanup, you start immediately. No one is stopping you. We’re here to help. And I do think that the Army Corps of Engineers has to move a lot faster. You’ve got more people here, more help… I know you’ve got one preferred contractor… bring in three… bring in four. This is massive. This is so hard for us to handle. And it’s my job to bulldoze through this stuff and say, ‘let people start cleaning up.’ The agencies, the government is here to help the people – not the other way around.” Here is Ric Grenell explaining this:
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