EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Monday the agency's small, visited $4 million EPA museum.
The little-known museum dedicated to environmental regulators costs $4 million to build, according to the Smithsonian, and costs more than $600,000 a year.
The museum was unable to compete with the popular Smithsonian, the National Museum of History, and other Washington, DC landmarks. Between May 2024 and February 2025, the museum only received 2,000 outside visitors, despite its free access. This will cost around $315 per person per visitor.
The annual cost of the EPA Museum is as follows:
- Over $123,000 for cleaning and landscaping
- Approximately $38,000 for daily maintenance and repair of museum audio/visual equipment
- Approximately $54,000 for purchasing, shipping, assembly and installation of a museum-grade storage system for archive collections and materials
- Approximately $123,000 for utility
- Approximately $207,000 for two security guards while the museum is open Monday through Friday.
Readers may expect the museum to be a nonpartisan display of American devotion to air, water and land, but the Biden administration chose to curate the museum between 2014 and January 2021 with a notable lack of awareness.
Instead, the Biden administration focused its energy on promoting topics such as “environmental justice” and climate change.
Former Congressman Zeldin has now cancelled more than $60 million contracts as part of the president's initiative to reduce diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and environmental justice contracts and grants.
In contrast, the agency's “The Power of Great American Comeback” initiative promotes automobile manufacturing, artificial intelligence capabilities and energy production.
While many may think Zeldin is focused solely on Trump's “energy control” goal, the EPA chief has also announced that he will move to clear hundreds of backlog cases to improve air quality. Zeldin says the Biden administration ignored these backlog cases as it focuses on the “pursuit of ideology” rather than the “core mission” of the agency to clean water, land and air.
New York Times The museum is free for everyone to visit, but it claims there are still important barriers to seeing the exhibition.
“First, there's an entrance door, but it's very heavy and indomitable, so it's very easy to assume that the building is closed. Ultimately, the gesture guard isn't. Inside, there are separate bins for laptops and bags. This is, after all, a federal building. The era I wrote it.
The outlet added, “For better or worse, there are no gift stores.”
Dr. Stan Mayberg, a former career EPA employee, said in an interview with The era That he hopes the Trump administration will maintain the museum.
He said, “You're holding this museum because you're telling a real story. It's not a partisan story.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him with x @seanmoran3.
