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million. Bernhardt's alleged appointment as Acting Secretary echoes events at the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year. In July, Scott Pruitt, who was then head of the EPA, was forced to resign amidst a string of ethical scandals. His deputy, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, with a poorly developed professional profile but in-depth knowledge of the agency he ran and the industry regulations he was looking for to cancel, succeeded him.
"I see a parallel with the EPA," said Ms. Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance. . "The environmentalists wanted scalps. They had Pruitt's scalp, but the politics did not change. I would expect the same thing to happen on the inside.
Bernhardt, a lawyer and former official of the Department of the Interior under the George W. Bush administration, does not have the rough outdoor image of Mr. Zinke, a former member of the Navy SEAL who congratulated Mr. Trump for his extra-central casting style.
"Zinke is sort of a cowboy, who often pulls on the hip and may be speaking without knowing all the facts, so he needed a real professional who knows how the department works," he says. said Whit Fosburgh, president of Theodore Roosevelt. Partnership for Conservation n advocacy group for hunters, fishers and others. "It's David's job to integrate what Zinke says in a policy."
Environmental and government monitoring groups say that, as Mr. Bernhard enacted these policies, it considered proposals that could generate benefits for its former clients. Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, who is expected to become chairman of the House's Natural Resources Committee once Democrats return to the House as a majority party in January, said that 39, he intended to examine the activities of Mr. Bernhardt within the agency. 19659007] "Mr. We are well aware of Bernhardt's serious conflicts of interest, and we will monitor his role in decision-making within the Department of the Interior, regardless of the position he occupies, "he said. Mr. Grijalva in a statement sent by email.
The energy sector benefited from policies Mr. Bernhardt guided. The agency has opened the East Coast for the first time offshore oil and gas drilling, eased the standards of the Endangered Species Act, relaxed the safety rules applicable to offshore drilling equipment and narrowed the boundaries of national monuments to open the territory to mines and drilling
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