Sierra Club: Zinke “Failure and Embarrassment” as Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Interior Secretary Zinke was on Capitol Hill again today testifying before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee defending the proposed budget for the Department of the Interior. Sec. Zinke’s answers to Congressional questions largely mirrored those he gave earlier in the week when he blamed the elderly, disabled, veterans, and children for failing to pay for the National Park maintenance backlog, changed his story on opening the country’s coasts to offshore drilling, lectured members he disagreed with, and made clear nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the Trump administration’s vision for the country’s public lands - fossil fuel profits above all else.

In response Lena Moffitt, senior director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign issued the following statement.

“Ryan Zinke’s testimony today made it abundantly clear he will not let the truth stand in his way. He has sold out our coasts, our parks and public lands, and taxpayers.Today he devolved to bullying members of Congress to defend his shameful actions. Zinke’s pattern of meeting questions with anger and accusations is dangerous; the fact that he fails to recognize the wrongness and hazards of his close relationship with corporate polluters and questionable ethics is even more so. He has brought scandal after scandal upon himself and the Department-- and that doesn’t account for what we don’t know about his use of private email for work. Zinke has been a failure and embarrassment as Secretary. It’s past time Donald Trump fires him.”