Three Years of Revolving Doors, Huge Campaign Contributions, and Reckless Decisions Leave Public Lands Users Footing the Bill 

Today, Western Values Project — an Accountable.US project based in Montana, defending America’s public lands — released the first in a series of corruption reports highlighting how the Trump administration is costing public lands users across Western states. Today’s report focuses on Colorado and can be downloaded here.

“Donald Trump and his friends are getting richer by shutting the rest of us out of our American birthright,” said Deputy Director of Western Values Project Jayson O’Neill. “Any member of Congress who pretends to care about public lands must act to actually protect those lands from this unprecedented level of corruption and exploitation. A good place to start would be stopping President Trump’s war on Colorado’s public lands.”

A revolving door of staff and huge campaign contributions to the President and his allies have paved the way for special interests to jeopardize some of the most iconic landscapes in the state. Strikingly, the report shows that: 

• One company, which employs a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump, got unusually quick approval to mine coal in Colorado after it promised to support the construction of the President’s controversial border wall.
• Corporations that have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the President’s congressional allies are amongst the top drillers of public lands in the state. Many of the same corporations have seen staff take jobs in this corrupt administration. 
• The President and his former oil and gas lobbyist turned-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt have tried to remove protections on millions of acres of public land in critical wildlife habitat.
• Even worse, the Trump administration wants to privatize the way public lands and national parks are run, which could lead to increased fees for public lands users.

Supporting materials for the report can be downloaded here.