Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC -- On Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s one year anniversary on the job, new scandals have emerged and past ones have grown, continuing the trend Zinke has established this year. Yesterday, CNN reported that Zinke was warned he was on pace to exceed his travel budget by $200,000 -- despite, as Zinke claims, his office being understaffed. In the wake of former Secretary Tom Price’s ultimate resignation for private plane use, it was revealed that Zinke also repeatedly took private planes, paid for by taxpayers. CNN also reported that Christine Bauserman, a special assistant to Zinke and political appointee, resigned yesterday after it was revealed that she repeatedly shared conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ sentiments on social media. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Zinke and his top staff at Interior took nearly 180 meetings with the fossil fuel industry in just a 10 month span last year. Zinke capped off the day by calling environmental and conservation organizations “the enemy,” and demanded to be thanked by them for -- what was widely seen as a political move that’s been countered by Zinke’s own department -- removing Florida from his draft offshore drilling plans.
To mark his one year in office, the Sierra Club released a short video today, highlighting Zinke’s plans to usher in the largest rollback in public lands protections in history while simultaneously pushing for the largest expansion of offshore drilling ever and selling off public lands for fossil fuel development. Zinke’s actions to open places from Bears Ears in Utah to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, while pricing people out of our parks, has been widely criticized as demonstrating a continued lack of respect for the public he is supposed to serve and mismanagement of our public resources. You can watch the video here.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
“Ryan Zinke’s tenure has been nothing less than a failure steeped in scandals, blatant political ploys, and a total disregard for America’s public lands. Zinke came into office talking up his commitment to protecting our public lands, but ever since, he’s shown the only thing he wants to protect is corporate polluters profits. The only acceptable way for Zinke to celebrate his anniversary is by finally resigning.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.