A Former Oil-Industry Lobbyist Is Now In Charge of America's Public Lands

(When Trump nominated Bernhardt for the job in February, Senator Tom Udall said he had deep concerns about Bernhardt’s past work: “We do not need another secretary with a polluters-over-people agenda.")

 Since his nomination, the oil-industry lawyer and lobbyist has been dogged by scandals. He was supposed to clean up the mess left behind by Ryan Zinke, but now finds himself challenged for record-keeping practices, suppressing science, and potential ethics violations. At the top of his  agenda are selling oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, finalizing a series of long-term controversial management plans that will likely expand oil and gas development in Colorado and New Mexico, opening up the Atlantic  and Eastern Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling, and streamlining the environmental-review process to expedite development.