As Ryan Zinke packs up his desk at the Department of Interior, Donald Trump is pondering which anti-environmental extremist to replace him with to oversee the $11 billion, 70,000-employee operation. Meanwhile, Democrats insist that his resigning will not stop them from probing a string of alleged ethical lapses and policy shenanigans. A real estate deal involving Halliburton and Zinke’s decision to recommend the shrinking of two national monuments in Utah are leading issues headed for investigation. Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) will take over as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee in two weeks and the decision to vastly reduce the acreage of those monuments will apparently be a top priority for scrutiny.
Most experts who have weighed in on the matter believe the chopping of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments will be reversed in the courts for being out of line with the 112-year-old act that established authority over designating and expanding national monuments.
At Think Progress, Mark Hand writes:
Adam Sarvana, Grijalva’s spokesman on the House Natural Resources Committee, told ThinkProgress on Monday that the committee intends to continue oversight of Zinke’s policy decisions: “How they were arrived and who he spoke to before he made them, especially on questions like the destruction of the Utah monuments and the opening of public lands to major fossil fuel extraction.”
“The investigations into Zinke’s ties to industry and misuse of taxpayer funds must continue and the Department of the Interior must reexamine every decision made during Zinke’s tenure that may have been influenced by the fossil fuel industry and other polluting special interests,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said Saturday in a statement.
The short list of replacements for Zinke includes Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist known for representing mining and agricultural interests, particularly in cases involving government regulations. The Colorado-born Bernhardt has made numerous enemies among conservationists and fishermen. At his confirmation hearing last year, he told senators that the views of Donald Trump and not scientists would guide decision-making at the department. “We cannot allow a lobbyist like David Bernhardt to transform our public lands and waters into oil and gas production zones when we have basically a decade left to avoid climate catastrophe,” Janet Redman, climate director for Greenpeace USA, said in a statement to Miranda Green and Timothy Cama at The Hill.
Then there’s Republican Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, a hard-nosed foe of federal land policies, particularly the setting aside of federal land as national monuments and wilderness. He’s currently the chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources. Bishop is a leader among Western Republicans who seek to transfer federal land to the states, a constitutionally suspect move that is designed to pave the way for promiscuous mineral, energy, and other development. He wants to repeal the 45-year-old Endangered Species Act because it gets in the way of development, and he wants to amend or demolish the Antiquities Act that authorizes the presidential designation of national monuments. He has a lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters of 2 percent. Spokeswoman Kristina Baum said Bishop “has an interest in the opportunity to pursue the Trump administration’s continued leadership on energy dominance, reorganization of BLM, and access to public lands.”
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada is what passes in some circles as a moderate Republican, another demonstration of just how far the political spectrum has shifted over the past few decades. Although he has taken a few stands favored by environmental advocates, such as continuing to block new consideration of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump. But that’s likely a case of NIMBYism on his home turf that might not stir him to oppose a nuclear waste dump if it was slated for, say, Tennessee. Heller strongly opposes the Endangered Species Act, and introduced a bill last year to eviscerate it. His lifetime LCV score: 11 percent.
Others on the list of possible Zinke replacements include tea party Republican Rep. Raúl Labrador of Idaho, with a LCV score of 4 percent. He has a reputation for voting for rollbacks of environmental regulations and public land protections. He met with White House officials regarding the post on Saturday. Like others on the list, he favors transferring federal land to the states. Stuart Leavenworth and Franco Ordoñez at McClatchy write:
During his tenure in the House, Labrador introduced legislation, H.R. 2316, that would have transferred up to 4 million acres of national forest land to Western states, with governor-appointed committees determining their management. He also voted against an amendment that would have specified that federal lands could not be transferred to private ownership, a vote that brought him the wrath of some sporting groups.
Both he and Heller also made sympathetic comments about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters, who engaged in two high-profile standoffs with federal land managers, including occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. Labrador called the refuge takeover an act of “peaceful” civil obedience. Heller initially called Bundy and his supporters “patriots.”
Among other possibilities to fill Zinke’s shoes: Former Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), another LCV 4 percenter; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, LCV score 3 percent; Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes; Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt; Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter; and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
Whoever gets the job, it’s certain that the GOP’s assault on environmental protections that began in earnest under Secretary of Interior James G. Watt four decades ago will continue. Perhaps the ethical violations will be fewer, but expect no end to the damage from bad policies as long as the Trump regime calls the tune. For the time being, only litigation can keep those policies in abeyance.