Pete Ricketts on Climate and the Environment: Zeldin's Repeal of the Climate Finding, Votes Repealing Methane and Clean-Car Rules, and Opening Public Lands

Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts 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 In February 2026 Zeldin's EPA rescinded the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, and with it every federal limit on carbon pollution from cars and trucks, so that the agency no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 Nebraska his agency terminated the Center for Rural Affairs' $62.4 million Solar for All grant for lower-income households in August 2025, a termination a court vacated in September 2026.

Ricketts 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. He voted to overturn federal land plans that had limited drilling in Alaska's Arctic refuge and coal leasing in 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.

Pete Ricketts's Votes and Confirmations on Climate and Pollution

• Ricketts Confirmed the EPA Administrator Who Repealed the Federal Climate Finding. On January 29, 2025, Pete Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote for the Law That Cut Clean-Energy Credits and Delayed the Methane Fee to 2034. On July 1, 2025, Ricketts 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 The law ended clean-energy tax credits, repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, rescinded the methane emissions reduction program money and moved the start of the methane fee to 2034, and requires not fewer than 4 lease sales in the Arctic refuge's Coastal Plain. Rhodium Group now projects U.S. emissions 27-44 percent below 2005 by 2035, down from 38-56 percent before the law, Scientific American reported.
• Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes That Ended the Boundary Waters Mining Ban in April 2026. On April 16, 2026, Ricketts voted yes on H.J.Res. 140, which passed 50-49, so it would have failed without his vote; he 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Repeal the Methane Fee on Oil and Gas Companies in February 2025. On February 27, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Revoke California's Clean-Car and Clean-Truck Standards in May 2025. On May 22, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Open the Arctic Refuge, the Alaska Petroleum Reserve and Western Coal Lands in Late 2025. From October through December 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted Against Restoring Methane Deadlines for Oil and Gas Wells in November 2025. On November 19, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Confirmed the Interior Secretary Who Halted Offshore Wind and Reopened the Arctic Refuge. On January 30, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Doug Burgum as interior secretary. His department issued a series of stop work orders that blocked construction of five large offshore wind projects until courts intervened, and struck deals paying developers more than $1.5 billion to abandon leases.
• Ricketts Confirmed the EPA Administrator Whose Agency Canceled Nebraska's $62.4 Million Solar for All Grant and Withheld Funds Congress Provided. Ricketts voted to confirm Zeldin on January 29, 2025. On August 7, 2025 the Center for Rural Affairs received formal notice of termination from Zeldin's EPA for Nebraska's $62.4 million Solar for All grant, part of a $7 billion program meant for more than 900,000 lower-income Americans; a federal judge vacated the termination on September 18, 2026, after a year in which the program was halted. The Government Accountability Office found in October 2026 that EPA violated the ICA when the agency, without submitting a special message, withheld money Congress provided.

What the Climate Rollbacks Pete Ricketts Backed Mean for Nebraska

• Health costs. Energy Innovation projects that increased pollution from federal energy policy changes, including the law Ricketts voted for, will raise Nebraska’s healthcare costs by $380 million from 2026 to 2040, with an estimated 420 new childhood asthma cases in Nebraska in 2035 alone.
• Clean power. The same analysis projects 6.9 GW less capacity added in Nebraska through 2040, including 3 GW less wind, while coal generation stays online longer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Climate and the environment

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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