Running out of lobbyists to hire, Zinke turns to land transfer zealots for top Interior posts

This week has seen leaders in the land seizure movement gaining traction at the Interior Department. Brian Steed, the former Chief of Staff to leading land seizure advocate Utah Congressman Chris Stewart, was appointed the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Meanwhile, Karen Budd-Falen, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s top pick to become the permanent head of BLM, will bring her land seizure road show to Hamilton, Montana tomorrow.

Plus, a scathing profile on James Carson, the associate deputy secretary at Interior, revealed how he is shaping the BLM to overwhelmingly favor the oil and gas industry at the expense of Western public lands. According to The Nation, “He wrote the Federal Register notice announcing the department’s controversial review of 27 national monuments, and he has been granted virtual carte blanche to set policy as it relates to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

Zinke Accountability Roundup:

Today, Politico’s cartoonists married the growing influence of the oil and gas industry at Interior with Zinke’s zeal for changing the department’s flag. Yesterday, The Washington Post exposed Zinke’s reckless and ethically questionable flying habits. On Tuesday, Huffington Post detailed his affinity for using taxpayer money for interior design à la taxidermy. Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin is still not happy with Zinke’s national monuments review.

Department of Interior Roundup:

A former Interior employee is suing the department for refusing to release information concerning his own reassignment and that of several of his former colleagues. Meanwhile, a Senate staffer offered inside information on the likely reduction of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. While information continues to leak out, the review process has been largely hidden from the public thus far.

Trivia: What current Interior nominee vocally supported drilling off the Virginia coastline while serving as Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources?

A)    Doug Domenech

B)    Jason Larrabee

C)    Aurelia Skipwith

D)    Austin Ewell

Answer: A) Doug Domenech! Currently the nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Insular Affairs, Domenech called the potential Atlantic oil reserves like “‘looking at a bunch of Christmas gifts that are wrapped.’” Read more about him here.

Join the effort to strengthen the American West.