Secretary of the Interior Zinke tucks tail at Western Governors’ Association meeting

In what appears to be a meet and run, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke failed to address critical questions from Western governors in public at their annual meeting in Whitefish, Montana. The Secretary left immediately after delivering brief remarks.

Statement from Chris Saeger, Executive Director of Western Values Project:

“Secretary Zinke seems to think running our nation’s public lands is about hollow platitudes and pandering to whatever crowd he finds himself in front of on a given day. You wouldn’t have learned it from this speech, but Secretary Zinke has blindsided Western governors with ill-advised reviews of plans that balance development and conservation. He’s proposed making it more expensive to access public lands, while opening the door for D.C. lobbyists to profit from our national heritage. Nothing about the way he’s leading our nation’s largest public lands management agency could make Westerners or our leaders proud.”

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