President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency suprised a law professor and a regulatory attorney who did not expect a former U.S. representative with little environmental experience to chart the incoming president's plan to turn back climate change regulations.

Zeldin “wasn't somebody who'd come across my radar screen as a potential pick," said Robert Glicksman, an environmental law professor at George Washington University. "He's not somebody that I've encountered as a knowledgeable member of Congress … on environmental issues.”