. Every year, millions of migratory birds are killed when they fly into power lines, oil waste pits and other energy development hazards, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says. Since the 1970s, the service has promoted industrial safety practices to protect birds from accidental harm—and has prosecuted and fined energy companies responsible for the deaths of these birds.
After President George W. Bush took office, Bernhardt returned to government as a political aide to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, a fellow Coloradan. He worked on the administration’s push to reverse a congressional ban on drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge. In 2006, he was promoted to solicitor, the department’s top lawyer.
After Trump was elected, Bernhardt served on the new administration’s transition team, then was named Zinke’s deputy. A coalition of 150 environmental groups opposed Bernhardt’s appointment, calling him aBernhardt’s Senate confirmation hearings were roiled when areported by Reveal, showed he had continued to give political advice to the Westlands Water District, a California agribusiness concern, for months after he told Congress he had quit lobbying.
Bernhardt’s recusal concerning the petroleum association expires in August and his official calendars do not reflect any meetings to dateThe oil lobby has had ready access to top administration officials, both inside the Interior and out, according to public records and the lobby leaders themselves. Since Bernhardt began work at the department, the IPAA has spent more than $1.3 million lobbying the department and other federal agencies, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Naatz predicted Bernhardt would actually run the department while Zinke would play a ceremonial role.
In other words another lobbyist !
Trump=Grifter
As shocking as this would normally be. They put an adversary of the environment in charge of the RPA, and set about gutting it, in front of everyone, blatantly, as if to show how things would be done from now on...
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Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »