What America Still Stands to Lose as Zinke Leaves Interior and Ex-Oil Lobbyist David Bernhardt Stands by

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With the resignation of Interior Secretaryย Ryan Zinke, environmental and public lands advocatesย are asking: Willย the new leader be any better for the environment than the previous one? And from theirย perspective,ย theย answer is aย resounding,ย โ€œNo.โ€

David Bernhardt, the current Deputy Interiorย Secretary, a former oil industry lobbyist, is likely to become Acting Secretary when Zinke leaves at the end of the year.ย Heย sharesย the same types of conflicts of interest his boss does. Theย Western Values Project (WVP), a pro-public lands group, has documented Bernhardtโ€™s many conflicts,ย illustrating how his work helps special interestย groups โ€” including some of his former clients โ€” in advancing agendas that often undermine protections forย public lands andย wildlife.

โ€œRyan Zinkeโ€™s tenure at the Department ofย Interior was a disaster for public lands of historic proportions,โ€ WVPโ€™sย executive director Chris Saeger wrote in aย recentย statement. โ€œTheย publicย and Congress should continue their commitment to vigilant oversight overย the ongoing ethical abuses at Interior in order to repair itsย reputation.โ€

Saegerย finds little to celebrate with the latest turnover in the Trump administration: โ€œThe musical chairs that have become the hallmark ofย this administration mean that at least in the interim, Trump is just replacingย one scandal-plaguedย Secretary with the ultimate DC swamp creature andย ex-lobbyist Davidย Bernhardt.โ€

David Bernhardt: โ€˜Too conflicted to even be Actingย Secretaryโ€™

As the second in command at the Department ofย Interior (DOI),ย Bernhardt canย step inย as the Acting Secretary when his boss leaves,ย overseeingย the department for 210ย days without action byย theย President.

Though it isnโ€™t certain President Trump will pick him, Bernhardtโ€™s deep understanding of how the Interior Department works has helped Zinke accomplish the fossil fuel industry-friendly policy moves that Trump continues toย praise, from cutting public lands protections for Bears Ears and Staircase-Escalante national monuments to diminishing the Endangeredย Speciesย Act.

Visitors view Gooseneck Bend in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Visitors at an overlook of Gooseneckย Bend, an area of Bears Ears National Monument which loses protection under the Trump administrationโ€™s proposal to shrink theย monument.

Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears National Monument
Valley of the Godsย in Bears Ears, part of the national monument that will no longer be protected if President Trumpโ€™s proclamation to reduce the size of itย stands.

Jonathan B. Jarvis, 18th director of the National Park Service, says Bernhardt is to Zinke what ex-coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler is to the similarly scandal-ridden Scott Pruitt, who resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July, calling him โ€œsmart, shrewd, low-profile, and effective.โ€

As Mother Jones reported in October, โ€œsome of the most radical changes under Trump have come from the many behind-the-scenes appointees, the government insiders, who have come out of the swamp the president pledged to drain. At Interior, thatโ€™s been Bernhardt and hisย allies.โ€

Saegerโ€™s group had called for Zinkeโ€™s resignation for his potential conflicts of interest and sees Bernhardt through the same lens. He warns, โ€œThe bottom line is thatย Bernhardt is too conflicted to even be Acting Secretary.โ€

Together Zinke and Bernhardt started theย largest rollback of federal land protections in U.S. historyย and prepared the largest U.S. offshore oil and gas lease sale (which ended as a flop inย August).

In addition, they have instructed the Bureau of Land Management, which isย in the Interior Department, toย reviseย its rules on methaneย emissions from natural gas drilling on public lands, pushed for more roads inย wilderness areas, canceled a study examining theย health impacts of coalย mining, and dismissed violations committed by coal companies.

Warning From Scientist Who Worked Underย Zinkeย 

โ€œI’m delighted to see Ryan Zinke get hisย comeuppance.ย Heย was corrupt andย arrogant in his disdain for science and public lands,โ€ Joel Clement, a former senior scientist andย policy expert with the Interior Department, wrote in an emailย following the news of Zinkeโ€™s resignation, โ€œbut his number two at Interior is equally corrupt and farย moreย circumspect-beware.โ€ย 

Clement, who filed for whistleblowerย protection and ultimately resigned while working under Zinke, is now a senior fellow with the Center for Science and Democracy with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). He currentlyย works to expose political interference in science and fight attacks on federal science from the Trump administration andย Congress.

Under Secretary Zinke, Clement, a biologist, was removed as a top climate expert at the Interior Department and moved into an accounting position within the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, a job he lacked expertise for and which collects royalties from oil companies operating on federal lands. Clement claimed he was reassigned in retaliation for his work on the impacts of climate change on Native Alaskanย communities.ย 

โ€œAmericaโ€™s public lands, and the natural and cultural resources they contain, belong to all of us,โ€ Clement recently wroteย in a Scientific American editorial. In the editorial, he rolled out the UCS report, โ€œScience Under Siege at the Department of the Interior,โ€ documenting what Clement describes as the โ€œmostย egregious and anti-scienceย policies and practices at the DOI under Secretaryย Zinke.โ€

The report outlines how the DOI under Secretary Zinke and his political team, includingย Bernhardt,ย attack science โ€œfrom sidelining the work of the agency’s own scientists to systematically refusing to acknowledge or act on climateย change.โ€ According to the report, โ€œthese actions have far-reaching and serious implications for our health, theย environment, and the future of our publicย lands.โ€ย 

Americaโ€™s Public Lands in theย Crosshairs

In August I visited areas in Utahโ€™s Bears Ears and Grandย Staircase-Escalante national monuments that Trump left unprotected after he slashed both monumentsโ€™ย boundaries. Multiple Native American tribes, including the Utah Dinรฉ (Navajo), Hopi, Zuni, and Ute, hold Bears Ears, in particular, as culturally and historically important land.

President Trump’s proclamationย splittingย Grand Staircase-Escalanteย into three monuments reduced the national monument by 46 percent and his proclamationย splitting Bears Ears into twoย monuments reduced the lands under protection by 85 percent.ย Legal challenges against the proclamations are ongoing.

Here are photos I shot of those public lands in southern Utah on both monuments, which, under Trump and Zinkeโ€™s watch, have lost protection from oil, gas, mining, and other extractiveย activities:

Lands Cut From Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationalย Monument

Views of areas cut from Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
View of an area cut from Grand Staircase-Escalanteโ€™s boundaries by President Trump and Secretaryย Zinke.

Slot canyon in area cut from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Slot canyon in lands formerly a part of Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationalย Monument.

Red sandstone cliffs in an area cut from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, created by President Bill Clinton, has stunning sandstone cliffs and plateaus that gave it itsย name.

Sunset over mesas and lands not protected anymore in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Sunset in a no longer protected area of Grand Staircase-Escalante, a national monument which boasts world-class hiking and climbing, as well as paleontological, archaeological, and historicalย sites.

Rock art in an area of Grand Staircase-Escalante that has lost federal protection under Trump.
Petroglyphs in an area of Grand Staircase-Escalante that lost protection after President Trumpโ€™s proclamation to shrink theย monument.

Lands Cut From Bears Ears Nationalย Monument

The Moki (or Mokee) Dugway, a section of Utah Route 261 just north of Mexican Hat, Utah.
The Moki (or Mokee) Dugway, a section of Utah Route 261 just north of Mexican Hat,ย Utah.

Gooseneck Bend would lose protection as Bears Ears National Monument is shrunk in size.
The dramatic Gooseneckย Bend in Bears Ears National Park, which is no longer protected under current federalย proclamation.

Road through Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears National Monument.
Road through the spire and mesa-filled Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears, an area of the national monument that stands to lose federalย protection.

Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears National Monument.
Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears National Monument. According to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, โ€œThe Valley of the Gods is considered sacred to the Navajo, who interpret the giant sandstone monuments as ancient Navajo warriors frozen in stone โ€” andย time.โ€

*Note: Some of the photos from Grand Staircase-Escalante were commissioned by Earthworks.

Main image: Anti-Trump graffiti at the top of Moki (or Mokee) Dugway, a dirt road that winds up from the Valley of the Gods to the mesa top in the former Bears Ears National Monument. Credit: All photos by Julie Dermansky forย DeSmog

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Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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