Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt Is Busy Attacking Endangered Species Including Bald Eagle

Disgraced former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke was a corrupt, unethical person who was finally forced from the role.  Replacing him on an acting basis is David Bernhardt.  He is an oil lobbyist who is working on behalf of corporations to destroy our country.  We wrote extensively about him in January 2019.  Please revisit our BE SMART post on him by clicking here.

 The acting secretary is Zinke's deputy David Bernhardt, a lawyer and former lobbyist for the oil industry with longtime experience at the agency.  Bernhardt sees himself as a foot soldier for Trump's pro-energy development agenda.... goals include deregulation and relaxing environmental standards for oil and gas companies.

The Department of the Interior manages one-fifth of all the land in the United States, including the wealth of oil, natural gas and coal below the ground.

Last Thursday, March 28, 2019, he was grilled by Democrats in the Senate as we await a vote on his confirmation at the new Interior secretary.  By the time you read this, he may already be confirmed to the role, another swamp creature in the Trump cabinet.  He's been very busy running the Department of Interior prior to Senate confirmation.

After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service...wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow..... two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants....

....then something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department... blocked the release.... Leading that intervention was David Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary of the interior and a former lobbyist and oil-industry lawyer.... he abruptly.... directed to take the new approach....that pesticide makers and users had lobbied intensively to promote.

THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF THE SWAMP.  Bernhardt was directly paid by corporations to ignore LIFE-THREATENING chemicals and expunge research proving it.  He and others supporting him should be in jail.

....events are detailed in more than 84,000 pages of Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests by The New York Times

The documents provide a case study of how the Trump administration has been using its power to second-guess or push aside conclusions reached by career professionals, particularly in the area of public health and the environment.

The decision to block the release of the report represented a victory for the pesticide industry, which has industry allies and former executives sprinkled through the administration.

Dow, which was recently renamed Corteva, donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration committee. E.P.A. and Interior Department records show that top pesticide industry executives had regular access to senior agency officials, pressing them to reconsider the way the federal government evaluates the threat pesticides cause to endangered species.

MOTHER FREAKING SWAMP.  And that's not even close to all.  Back in July 2018, Bernhardt led an effort to scale by the Endangered Species Act.  Yes he did.

The Interior Department on Thursday [July 19, 2018] proposed the most sweeping set of changes in decades to the Endangered Species Act, the law that brought the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly bear back from the edge of extinction.... The proposed revisions have far-reaching implications, potentially making it easier for roads, pipelines and other construction projects to gain approvals than under current rules.  The agency intends to make it more difficult to shield species....

Bernhardt, the deputy secretary of the Interior Department.... rejected a suggestion that the moves would help the oil and gas businesses, although leaders in those industries have long sought similar changes to the ones outlined Thursday.

Bernhardt’s long experience in Washington and with the law means he is unlikely to make ethical missteps.   His lobbying experience gave him deep knowledge of exactly what oil companies want done to benefit their bottom line at the expense of our environment and future.  We are screwed.

Sources:

http://smartdissent.com/article/zinkes-successor-acting-interior-secretary-agency-insider-and-oil

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/politics/endangered-species-david-bernhardt.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html