Trump to nominate ex-energy lobbyist Bernhardt to head Interior

By Timothy Gardner

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and acting U.S. Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt arrive to place a wreath at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday he would nominate David Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, to be secretary of the interior, the department that oversees U.S. public lands.

 

Bernhardt, currently the acting secretary at the Interior Department, is widely expected to continue pushing the Trump administration's plan to boost domestic fossil fuels production by opening more U.S. public lands to drilling and mining.

 

"David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed," Trump said on Twitter.

 

Bernhardt would replace Ryan Zinke, who was under a cloud of ethics investigations and announced his resignation in December.

 

The Interior Department, which employs more than 70,000 people and oversees more than 20 percent of the U.S. land surface, has been central to Trump's "energy dominance" policy of boosting energy production.

 

As Zinke's deputy, Bernhardt has played a role in efforts to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, ease Obama-era protections on a bird called the greater sage grouse to boost drilling and mining across the West, and open federal lands to leases for coal mining.

 

Ann Navaro, a former Department of Interior official who served in the Obama and Trump administrations and worked closely with Bernhardt, said he is a rare "lawyer's lawyer" who prepares thoroughly for meetings, often being the only one in a room to have read full environmental assessments of projects and plans.

 

Bernhardt, who prefers conservative suits to Zinke's cowboy hats and boots, also worked a series of jobs at the Interior Department under former President George W. Bush from 2001 to early 2009, including as the department's solicitor.

 

After working under Bush, Bernhardt became a lawyer and lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for water and oil interests. He represented Noble Energy Inc , Rosemont Copper Co, Sempra Energy , and California's Westlands Water District, among others.

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Bernhardt has long been an advocate of reforming the Endangered Species Act, the law that protects plants and animals at risk from resource extraction and development. If he is approved by the Senate, Bernhardt is expected to continue that work.

 

Critics say Bernhardt's previous work as a lobbyist could risk conflicts of interest, unless he recuses himself from certain issues, because he worked for companies that could benefit by opening up lands to development.

 

About 150 environmental groups in 2017, including the business-friendly Natural Resources Defense Council, urged senators to oppose Bernhardt in the confirmation vote for his deputy position, saying his previous lobbyist work raised questions about his ability to act in the public interest.

 

Despite their letter calling him a "walking conflict of interest", the Senate confirmed Bernhardt 53-43, on a mostly party-line vote, and with strong support from Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and other lawmakers who have large areas of U.S. lands in their states.

 

If Bernhardt ascends to secretary, it would mirror the change of guard at the Environmental Protection Agency where last July Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, replaced Scott Pruitt, who stepped down after a series of probes into his conduct. Wheeler is a staunch proponent of Trump's energy dominance agenda to produce oil, gas and coal for both domestic use and export.

 

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Peter Cooney, Susan Thomas and Bill Berkrot)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-05

I’m sure the ex lobbyists will know how to ring out the last of any resource for trump and his cronies can profit from it and to hell with the environment 

Did he promise to drain the swamp or fill it? Maybe one of the man-child base supporters can help me out here.

56 minutes ago, Becker said:

Did he promise to drain the swamp or fill it? Maybe one of the man-child base supporters can help me out here.

Oh I'm sure they'll be along soon enough, defending the indefensible and changing the narrative to suit their cognitive dissonance. 

One of Trumps main campaign pitches was his 'drain the swamp' promise and all he has done is almost exactly the opposite. From placing Scott Pruitt as Head of the Environmental Agency to now this obviously 'energy friendly' idiot to Secretary of the Interior, it has got to be obvious that Trump has only one thing in mind and that's to wring as much out of America as is humanly possible and to hell with the consequences. 

Apart from all the other nonsense this man gets up to (an every growing list), surely the damage he is doing to Americas environment will be the most worrying legacy Americans will have to live with for generations to come.   

Edited February 5, 20197 yr by johnnybangkok

2 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Oh I'm sure they'll be along soon enough, defending the indefensible and changing the narrative to suit their cognitive dissonance. 

One of Trumps main campaign pitches was his 'drain the swamp' promise and all he has done is almost exactly the opposite. From placing Scott Pruitt as Head of the Environmental Agency to now this obviously 'energy friendly' idiot to Secretary of the Interior, it has got to be obvious that Trump has only one thing in mind and that's to ring as much out of America as is humanly possible and to hell with the consequences. 

Apart from all the other nonsense this man gets up to (an every growing list), surely the damage he is doing to Americas environment will be the most worrying legacy Americans will have to live with for generations to come.   

Unfortunately having a complete idiot and most likely a Russian controlled traitor in the WH has global consequences.

This makes complete sense. Trump never met a lobbyist he could say no to. When he said he was going to drain the swamp, what he really meant was that he was going to remove the democratically aligned alligators, and re-populate his own swamp with even larger, and far filthier GOP aligned crocodiles. Trump has no interest in protecting the nation, or preserving the national lands, that the US is world famous for. America has the most amazing National Park system in the world. No other country even comes close. I have been to dozens of national parks and national forests and monuments in the US. Many are beyond belief. It took a century to create them. They are worth preserving. It is a legacy. Trump is trying as hard as he can, to change that, as he just does not get the "whole nature thing", and does not understand why the entire country should not be up for grabs. Why preserve? Why look toward the future? It is all about big profit now. At least that is what the lobbyists told him. He abides by their word. Their word is gospel. 

Sad case for a human I say.  Third world-here we come!

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