We’re starting to wonder if Trump has hit the bottom of the barrel for people willing to work for him. The administration dumped a whole handful of fresh nominees on us ahead of the holiday, showing that they’re continuing to fill the Washington swamp with cranks, fossil fuel hacks, and deniers.
While this batch is bad, the prize for the most objectionable swamp creature nominated thus far still goes, of course, to USDA pick Sam Clovis. Clovis’s racist and homophobic online rants are just some of the many reasons this climate change denying non-scientist is facing stiff opposition for the USDA’s top science position.
Despite a lack of abhorrent birtherists in this group of nominees, the press has done a good job thus far taking a close look at their credentials and backgrounds. Trump’s recent pick for NASA administrator, Oklahoma congressman and climate change denier Jim Bridenstine, got some solid coverage this weekend (in part because even Marco Rubio has concerns about Bridenstine’s “political baggage”).
But Bridenstine’s nomination is just the tip of the deplorable iceberg. Trump nominated David Ross, who sued to challenge the EPA’s Waters of the United States rule and tried to sue to stop the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan, to be the EPA’s water chief. But Ross’s Chesapeake lawsuit failed, and a court called his argument “long on swagger but short on specificity.” So if his nomination is accepted, the EPA will have another lawyer who has unsuccessfully sued the EPA on flimsy legal grounds.
To run the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), responsible for keeping Trump’s beloved miners safe, Trump has tapped David G. Zatezalo, a former mining company exec. If that alone weren’t “fox guarding the henhouse” enough, the WV Gazette-Mail posted an informative story over the weekend detailing how Zatezalo-led Rhino Resources was fined a paltry $44,500 for the death of a crew leader and other repeated infractions. With Zatezalo running MSHA, his former company might just get the advanced warnings of inspections that MSHA has also gotten in trouble for, and even token fines for the deaths of employees could shrink.
Finally, an Interior panel tasked with determining how much money the public should get from fossil fuels on public lands is being stacked with fossil fuel officials. These officials will “serve as primary members of the panel,” according to Devin Henry at The Hill. No doubt these fossil fuel executives will appropriately regulate the money fossil fuel companies make from public lands, right?
Make no mistake: while these appointees may be lower-profile than Scott Pruitt or Ryan Zinke, they can still do significant damage at their posts. (Remember political nominee John Konkus? According to the Washington Post, he’s keeping an eye out for “the double C-word” while reviewing grants for EPA.)
All that said, there is a glimmer of good news. It appears as though Trump’s love of military men means that at least one position will be filled with someone intelligent and competent: Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet was nominated to the number 2 spot at NOAA. With degrees from Scripps in Oceanography and experience as the former director of the Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change, Gallaudet is one of the only qualified people in the Trump administration.
Though with even Trump’s closest aide abandoning ship, there’s no telling how long Gallaudet lasts aboard the SS Trumptanic.
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