Florida Senator Ashley Moody voted on January 29, 2025 to confirm Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator (roll call 24). In February 2026 Zeldin's EPA rescinded the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, and with it every federal limit on carbon pollution from cars and trucks, so that the agency no longer regulates GHG emissions from US vehicles. In Tampa, his agency terminated $15 million grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act intended for Tampa Bay area projects, including storm-retention ponds in the University Area.
Moody also voted in 2025 to repeal the federal methane fee on oil and gas companies and California's clean-car and clean-truck standards, and for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which ended clean-energy tax credits. She voted to overturn federal land plans in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming, and in April 2026 cast one of the 50 votes that ended a 20-year mining ban on 225,504 acres of Superior National Forest lands upstream of Minnesota's Boundary Waters.
Ashley Moody's Votes and Confirmations on Climate and Pollution
- Moody Confirmed the EPA Administrator Who Repealed the Federal Climate Finding. On January 29, 2025, Ashley Moody voted to confirm Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator. On February 18, 2026, Zeldin's EPA published its rescission of the Endangerment Finding, the 2009 conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger health, and all vehicle greenhouse gas standards; in September 2026 it finalized a rule rescinding all greenhouse gas emission standards for existing fossil fuel-fired power plants, which make up roughly 25% of US total GHG emissions. The rescission is in force while a group of 24 states and a dozen of counties and cities filed a petition challenging it in the D.C. Circuit. Policy Integrity estimates all of the administration's rollbacks put 3,299 Annual Premature Mortalities at Risk and 7,461 Annual New Child Asthma Onsets at Risk.
- Moody Confirmed the EPA Administrator Whose Agency Cancelled a $15 Million Storm and Water Grant for Tampa's University Area. Moody voted to confirm Zeldin on January 29, 2025. Zeldin's EPA terminated $15 million grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act intended for Tampa Bay area projects, money the University Area Community Development Corporation planned to use to make retention ponds able to handle storms in a neighborhood hit by the 2024 hurricanes, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported in August 2025. As of August 26, 2026, Inside Climate News reported, a July 2026 court order for the EPA to resume the program was under appeal and "In the meantime, communities still are without funding." The Government Accountability Office later found that EPA violated the ICA when the agency, without submitting a special message, withheld money Congress provided.
- Moody Cast a Deciding Vote for the Law That Cut Clean-Energy Credits and Delayed the Methane Fee to 2034. On July 1, 2025, Moody voted yes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote. The law ended clean-energy tax credits, repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, rescinded the methane emissions reduction program money and and moved the start of the methane fee to 2034. Rhodium Group now projects U.S. emissions 27-44 percent below 2005 by 2035, down from 38-56 percent before the law.
- Moody Cast One of the 50 Votes That Ended the Boundary Waters Mining Ban in April 2026. On April 16, 2026, Moody voted yes on H.J.Res. 140, which passed 50-49, so it would have failed without her vote; she had voted the day before to take it up (roll call 83). The resolution nullified the 2023 order that withdrew 225,504 acres of Superior National Forest lands from mineral and geothermal leasing in the watershed of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, opening the way for a copper-nickel mine. Minnesota voters oppose sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters watershed (23% favor / 57% oppose) in a December 2025 Impact Research poll for Save the Boundary Waters.
- Moody Voted to Repeal the Methane Fee on Oil and Gas Companies in February 2025. On February 27, 2025, Moody voted yes on H.J.Res. 35, which repealed EPA's rule charging oil and gas companies for excess methane emissions; it passed 52-47. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and Policy Integrity lists the methane fee rule as Fully Repealed, with $236 million a year in net benefits lost.
- Moody Voted to Revoke California's Clean-Car and Clean-Truck Standards in May 2025. On May 22, 2025, Moody voted for three resolutions revoking the waivers that let California enforce its Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks and low-NOx heavy truck rules, standards that 11 other states (plus the District of Columbia) have now also adopted for cars. The Senate acted although the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian had said the waivers were not rules Congress could overturn this way, and California is challenging the move in court. California regulators had estimated the car rule's health benefits included a reduction of over 1,000 premature deaths, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Moody Voted to Open the Arctic Refuge, the Alaska Petroleum Reserve and Western Coal Lands in Late 2025. From October through December 2025, Moody voted for resolutions overturning federal land plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and the Miles City, Montana and Buffalo, Wyoming areas, where the plans had limited new coal leasing. The Miles City vote was the first time the Congressional Review Act has been used to overturn a land use plan. The Interior Department has since opened the 1.56 million acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, habitat for Porcupine caribou, denning polar bears, and moved toward reopening almost 82% of the reserve to oil and gas leasing.
- Moody Voted Against Restoring Methane Deadlines for Oil and Gas Wells in November 2025. On November 19, 2025, Moody voted no on taking up a resolution to overturn EPA's extension of deadlines in its oil and gas methane standards; it failed 46-51. EPA had finalized the deadline exemptions that month, and Policy Integrity estimates the delay puts $9.3 billion a year in net benefits and 52 premature deaths a year at risk.
What the Climate Rollbacks Ashley Moody Backed Mean for Florida
- Health costs. Energy Innovation projects that worsening local air pollution will raise Florida’s healthcare costs by $1.3 billion from 2026 to 2040 as a result of federal energy policy changes since January 2025, including the law Moody voted for.
- Storm protection in Tampa. The terminated EPA grant was to help the University Area in Tampa, in an area hit hard by last year’s hurricanes, make its retention ponds sustainable and able to handle storms, and the projects were now halted, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Climate and the environment
What is Ashley Moody's record on climate and the environment under Trump?
Ashley Moody voted to confirm EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, whose agency rescinded the endangerment finding and the federal limits on carbon pollution from vehicles and power plants and cancelled a storm-protection grant in Tampa. She voted to repeal the methane fee, to revoke California's clean-car and clean-truck standards, and for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. She also voted to overturn federal land plans in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming and cast one of the 50 votes that ended the Boundary Waters mining ban.
Did Ashley Moody vote to repeal the methane fee?
Yes. Ashley Moody voted on February 27, 2025 for H.J.Res. 35, which passed 52-47 and repealed EPA's charge on oil and gas companies for excess methane emissions, and in November 2025 she voted against taking up a resolution to restore the methane rules' deadlines for oil and gas wells. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which she also voted for, moved the start of the methane fee itself to 2034.
Is the EPA repeal of the climate endangerment finding in effect?
Yes. The rescission by Ashley Moody's confirmed EPA administrator took effect when EPA published its rescission on February 18, 2026, and 24 states are challenging it in the D.C. Circuit; no court has blocked it.
Last updated: 2026-10-25