President Trump tweeted Saturday. “Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.”
This is Trahant Reports.
Two years ago Ryan Zinke was riding high.
He was moving from representing Montana in the Congress to running the Department of Interior. In the West it’s the gig to get. The secretary controls more public lands than many state governors. The secretary has a huge say in oil and gas leasing. And the secretary is the key government official responsible for carrying out the treaty and trust obligation to tribes.
Ryan Zinke wasted no time in mixing it up with all three interests. At the request of President Donald J. Trump, Zinke reviewed 27 national monuments, opening their status for energy development, and stripping tribal governments of a say in how those lands would be managed.
A three-fer.
Except almost immediately a coalition of tribes and environmental groups moved the fight into the federal judiciary. A number of lawsuits will determine if Zinke even had the legal authority to reduce the size of the monuments. As the tribal arguments in the legal proceedings stated: “It was the largest rollback, whether by a president or Congress, of federally protected lands in United States history.”
That legal case will continue. Probably for years. And, in the meantime, the next secretary will have to notify the court before there is actual drilling.
Earlier this month, a blog post for Scientific American called Zinke’s policies a “monumental disaster.” Joel Clement wrote that he was one of the senior executives and scientists who were sidelined. “At the Department of the Interior, with its mission to conserve and manage America’s natural and cultural resources, the Trump administration’s political appointees are stumbling over one another to earn accolades for disabling agency operations,” he wrote.
Indeed, one of Zinke’s last acts was to release the required Fourth National Climate Assessment on the day after Thanksgiving. That report described a bleak future for the United States if climate change is not addressed and it points out that federal lands produce nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington calls Zinke “one of the most ethically dubious members of president’s cabinet.” It cites 17 investigations, and says he has been only cleared of wrongdoing in three cases.
A new secretary could be appointed as soon as this week. But don’t expect many policy changes at Interior. Energy dominance is a theme that comes from the White House.
I am Mark Trahant.
