benedetto, kathy

<p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/person/kathleen-kathy-benedetto/">https://departmentofinfluence.org/person/kathleen-kathy-benedetto/</a></font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">S</font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pecial Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior</span></p><div class="module full-content" id="introduction" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 750px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 750px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathleen “Kathy” Benedetto is serving as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior. She was previously a Senior Advisor to the Bureau of Land Management.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before co-founding a nonprofit called the Women’s Mining Coalition, an organization that lobbied Congress on behalf of the mining industry, Benedetto worked nearly two decades for the mining industry. She was part of a coalition that wanted to “completely throw out” the Endangered Species Act. Benedetto worked as a field coordinator for Montanans for Common Sense Water Laws, an industry-funded group that opposed clean water initiatives unfavorable to mining companies. She then became the program director at the National Wilderness Institute, which was created to “roll back wetlands regulation.” Next, Benedetto moved to Washington D.C. to work for the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, where she stayed for 13 years, during which time she frequented trips sponsored by mining and oil industries. Since 2016, Benedetto has been a government affairs specialist at Bioxy Research, which provides “services for the oil and gas, refining and chemicals, mining, agriculture and construction industries.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sources: [Department of Interior, <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-welcomes-six-new-hires-department" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Press Release</a>, 10/10/17, Al Shaw, Justin Elliott and Derek Kravitz, “<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Here are More than 400 Officials Trump has Quietly Deployed Across the Government</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">ProPublica</span>, 03/08/17, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1303978/allianceforamerica00502.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Sandy Neily (Maine Audubon Society) Report On Fly-In for Freedom Conference</a>, 09/94, LinkedIn Profile for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/02/17, “<a href="https://www.mininghalloffame.org/page/womens-mining-coalition-be-given-prazen-living-legend-mining-award" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Women’s Mining Coalition to be given Prazen Living Legend of Mining Award</a>,” Mining Hall of Fame, accessed 02/17/17, Robin Bravender, “<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:txDGcOzdxLIJ:https://www.eenews.net/special_reports/powershift/stories/1060046616+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Former House aide joins Trump; Bishop advises on monuments</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Energy & Environment</span>, 12/05/16, “<a href="http://www.wmc-usa.org/aboutus.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">History and Mission</a>,” Women’s Mining Coalition, accessed 02/17/17, Joe Gutkoski, “Mining industry hides behind misleading name,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Bozeman Daily Chronicle</span>, 10/05/96, Tom Kenworthy, “Mining Industry Labors To Drown Montana Water Quality Initiative,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Washington Post</span>, 10/30/96, Jane Fritsch, “<a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-03-25/news/9603240281_1_environmental-groups-wilderness-society-species" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Nature-loving Names Hide Groups Of Eco-foes</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New York Times</span>, 03/25/96, Legistorm Profile for <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/15/17, and “<a href="http://www.bioxyresearch.com/company.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">About Us</a>,” Bioxy Research, accessed 01/30/17]</font></small></p></div></div></div></div><div class="module divider" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 54px; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Special Interests </font>Background InformationPrevious Employers</h2></div><div class="module full-content first" id="previous-employers" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 2459px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 2459px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px 25px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1303978/allianceforamerica00502.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">Amoco Minerals</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Houston Oil and Minerals/ Tenneco Minerals</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Western Resource Associates</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.mininghalloffame.org/page/womens-mining-coalition-be-given-prazen-living-legend-mining-award" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Women’s Mining Coalition</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Montanans for Common Sense Water Laws</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">National Wilderness Institute</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources of the House Natural Resources Committee</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">Bioxy Research</font></a></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span data-redactor-tag="strong" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Additional Background on Employers of Note:</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Kathy Benedetto, in 1993, co-founded a nonprofit called the Women’s Mining Coalition, which is an organization that promotes the mining industry by lobbying Congress.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto, in 1993, “co-founded” a 501(c)(4) nonprofit called the Women’s Mining Coalition to lobby Congress. The organization was “instrumental in rallying legislators to reject an onerous bill to change the 1872 mining law.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Robin Bravender, “<a href="https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1060046616" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Former House aide joins Trump; Bishop advises on monuments</a>,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Energy & Environment</em>, 12/05/16, and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keogjrLOPao" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Women’s Mining Coalition Prazen Living Legend of Mining Award</a>,” YouTube, 09/28/16, (02:45 and 02:55)]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kathy Benedetto, in 1996, was a county coordinator for Montanans for Common Sense Water Laws (MCSW), </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">an industry-funded group that opposed clean water initiatives unfavorable to mining companies.</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MCSW’s corporate donors included Zortman Mining, which had recently agreed pay $37 million, “the largest water quality settlement in state history… to settle lawsuits filed by state, federal and tribal agencies.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[LinkedIn Profile for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/02/17, Joe Gutkoski, “<a href="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/mining-industry-hides-behind-misleading-name/article_c0ad8295-b978-50ab-9fee-0376764120d1.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Mining industry hides behind misleading name</a>,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Bozeman Daily Chronicle</em>, 10/05/96, and Tom Kenworthy, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/10/30/mining-industry-labors-to-drown-montana-water-quality-initiative/37e70cc5-ff22-491e-acbd-2497e312550e/?utm_term=.51f28848ab73" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Mining Industry Labors To Drown Montana Water Quality Initiative</a>,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Washington Post</em>, 10/30/96]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kathy Benedetto, from 1999 to 2003, was the program director at the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">National Wilderness Institute (NWI), which was created to “roll back wetlands regulation” and Endangered Species Act protections. It has been described as a “‘green-scam group.'”</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Groups have described NWI as a “‘green-scam group,'” and “a front for conservatives, ranchers, big business and other environmental foes.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[LinkedIn Profile for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/02/17, Jane Fritsch, “<a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-03-25/news/9603240281_1_environmental-groups-wilderness-society-species" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Nature-loving Names Hide Groups Of Eco-foes</a>,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New York Times</em>, 03/25/96, “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060201231008/http:/www.nwi.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">About NWI</a>,” National Wilderness Institute, accessed via Wayback Machine, 08/29/05 and Frederick Kunkle, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/01/28/environmental-groups-agenda-is-questioned/dc3abf33-4942-49c3-8ccf-a0decdab7dd6/?utm_term=.9a5601e1a869" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Environmental Group’s Agenda Is Questioned</a>,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Washington Post</em>, 01/30/02]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After decades working on behalf of the mining industry and its interests, Kathy Benedetto moved to Washington D.C. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For 13 years, Benedetto worked on the House Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, where she frequently took trips sponsored by the mining and oil industries.</span></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In her time working on the subcommittee </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">she worked for Representative Barbara Cubin (R-WY) from 2003 to 2005, Representative Jim Gibbons (R-NV) from 2005 to 2007, Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) from 2007 to 2009, and Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">) from 2009 to 2016.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[LinkedIn Profile for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/02/17 and Legistorm Profile for <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/15/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2003, Kathy Benedetto was an invited speaker at the Northwest Mining Association’s annual meeting. The American Exploration and Mining Association sponsored her trip at a cost of $865.64. Benedetto also traveled to Spokane, WA, to attend the Northwest Mining Association’s annual meeting in 2004 at a cost of $548.39.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Legistorm Profile for <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/15/17]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 2004, Kathy Benedetto traveled to Boise, ID, and Gillette, WY, to review natural gas exploration and production in the Powder River Basin.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The Domestic Petroleum Council sponsored her trip at a cost of $980.37.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Legistorm Profile for <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/15/17]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kathy Benedetto</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, in 2004, spoke at the Freedom 21 Conference at a cost of $873.00. The Freedom 21 Conference was hosted by the conservative Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFAC</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">T), which “was founded to promote a much-needed, positive alternative voice on issues of environment and development.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Legistorm Profile for <a href="https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/19348/Kathleen_Mary_Francis_Benedetto.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/15/17 and “<a href="http://www.cfact.org/about/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Statement of Purpose</a>,” Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, accessed 02/20/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Kathy Benedetto, since September 2016, has been a “Government Affairs Specialist” for Bioxy Research, which provides “services for the oil and gas, refining and chemicals, mining, agriculture and construction industries.”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[LinkedIn Profile for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-benedetto-a3963410/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/02/17 and “<a href="http://www.bioxyresearch.com/company.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">About Us</a>,” Bioxy Research, accessed 01/30/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /></div></div></div></div><div class="module full-content gray" id="political-connections" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 90px 0px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 405px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 405px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><h4 style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 31.2px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political Connections</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Kathy Benedetto has contributed $3,650 to Republican candidates and committees at the state and federal level, and she has worked to elect various Republicans to Congress.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2012 Kathy Benedetto contributed $250 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. In 1997 and 1998, she made three contributions totaling $1,509 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In 1996, she made three contributions totaling $891 to Denny Rehberg’s campaign. She also made two contributions totaling $500 to Barbara Vucanovich’s 1994 and 1996 congressional campaigns in Nevada.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Political Moneyline Search for Kathleen Benedetto, CQ, accessed 02/23/17 and FEC Search for Kathleen Benedetto, accessed 07/10/17]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /></div></div></div></div><div class="module full-content " id="current-activity" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 571px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 571px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 31.2px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current Activity</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to an analysis of Benedetto’s calendar, between March 1, 2017 and December 4, 2017, Benedetto </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“scheduled roughly twice as many meetings with mining and fossil-fuel representatives as with environmental groups.”</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Jimmy Tobias, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/09/environment-trump-oil-gas-kathleen-benedetto?CMP=share_btn_tw" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Trump official under fire after granting broad access to mining and oil firms</a>,” <em style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Pacific Standard</em>, 03/09/18]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kathleen </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Benedetto said that managing a “large amount of federal estate” for “conservation purposes” is a “concern,” and identified wilderness as another “concern” because she believes only minerals can “drive progress.”</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wyoming BLM Director Mary Jo Rugwell’s memo of a July 2017 Executive Leadership Team meeting describes concerns expressed by Kathleen Benedetto. Benedetto said that one of her “concerns” is that “a large amount of federal estate is being managed for conservation purposes,” and that “it takes minerals (as a raw material) to drive progress.” Benedetto also identified Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and Lands with Wilderness Characteristics as “areas of concern.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Mary-Jo-Rugwell-Email-to-WLT-Leadership-Team-7.25.17-2.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Mary Jo Rugwell Email to BLM Wyoming Leadership Team</a>, 07/25/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /></div></div></div></div><div class="module full-content gray" id="financials" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 0px; padding: 90px 0px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 256px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 256px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><h4 style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 31.2px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Financials</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Benedetto-Kathleen.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Financial Disclosure</font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Office of Government Ethics]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Department of Interior Salary: $131,767</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/kathleen-m-f-benedetto" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathleen Benedetto</a>, ProPublica’s TrumpTown, accessed 03/13/18]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /></div></div></div></div><div class="module full-content last-module" id="other-information" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 90px 0px 110px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; float: left; width: 1583px; position: relative;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 40px; background-repeat: no-repeat; max-width: 100%; width: 1050px; height: 3786px;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; height: 3786px;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 15px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; min-height: 1px; float: none; width: 750px;"><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 31.2px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other Information</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1995, Kathy Benedetto accepted the “Activist of the Year Award” at the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Wise Use </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Leadership Conference.</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995, Kathy Benedetto accepted the “Activist of the Year Award” at the Wise Use Leadership Conference, a “right-wing” event that teaches attendees “public relations techniques” to use “against the environmental movement,” including the “formation of industry-friendly citizens’ groups.” The Wise Use movement is “closely aligned with the militia movement in the West.” The Wise Use Agenda calls for “opening national parks and wilderness areas to mining and drilling, logging all remaining old-growth forests and eliminating the Endangered Species Act.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto, at the 1995 Wise Use Leadership Conference, received the conference’s “Activist of the Year Award.” The Wise Use movement is a “grassroots movement made up of private property rights, farming, ranching, logging and mining organizations dedicated to the wise use and sound management of the nation’s natural resources” and has been described as “closely aligned with the militia movement in the West.” The Wise Use Agenda calls for “opening national parks and wilderness areas to mining and drilling, logging all remaining old-growth forests and eliminating the Endangered Species Act.” The Wise Use Leadership Conference is a “right-wing” event that teaches its attendees “public relations techniques” to use “against the environmental movement,” including the “formation of industry-friendly citizens’ groups.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[“<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1349202/cdfearnoldga00023.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Leadership Conference Report: What a Success!</a>” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The Private Sector</em>, Autumn 1995, Michael Wickline, “Crapo gets money for Highway 25 or 95 or whatever it’s called,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Lewiston Morning Tribune</em>, 04/16/98, David Helvarg, “Wild Western Movements,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">In These Times</em>, 07/28/97, and Paul MacGillivray, “Another branch industry,” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The Vancouver Sun</em>, 04/10/97]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kathy Benedetto was presented the Activist of the Year Award by Perry Pendley,</b> the President of Mountain States Legal Foundation (MLSF). The MSLF, which has been described as being affiliated with “ALEC/Koch,” is a 501(c)(3) dedicated “to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system.” In the 1970s, MSLF “battled the Bureau of Land Management” over limiting “development on public lands,” while taking “funding from oil and gas companies.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[“<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1349202/cdfearnoldga00023.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Leadership Conference Report: What a Success!</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The Private Sector</span>, Autumn 1995, “<a href="https://www.mountainstateslegal.org/about#.WK-xyBIrKb9" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">About Mountain States Legal Foundation</a>,” Mountain States Legal Foundation, accessed 02/23/17, Joel Kirkland, “<a href="http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060050089" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Senate GOP pledges vote on Pruitt as Trump chaos grows</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Environment & Energy</span>, 02/15/17, and Bob Sloan, “<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/7/24/1103641/Mountain%20States%20Legal%20Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">ALEC, the Koch Led CABAL & ‘The Amicus Project’ – Fed Court Interference</a>,” <span data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Daily Kos</span>, 07/24/12]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto, who called the Endangered Species Act “‘morally bankrupt,'” was part of a group that wanted to “completely throw out” the ESA.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">1995 Kathy Benedetto said the Endangered Species Act “‘defines our environmental policy; it states that plants, animals and bugs are more important than human beings and that’s morally bankrupt.'” At the time she was an “Executive Committee Member” for the Grassroots ESA Coalition, which wanted to “completely throw out the…ESA and substitute a new one in its place.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[“<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1350405/fishermenscoa01456.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Annual Meeting — Alliance for America</a>,” Alliance for America, 09/13/95, and “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1303496/afadailybulletn00906.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Grassroots ESA Coalition Hits the Ground Running</a>,” Alliance for America, 06/10/95]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto, in 2006, defended a congressional plan to sell a stone quarry on “federal land in central Idaho” to a private corporation without first completing the legally-required environmental impact statement.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Benedetto said completing the impact statement would have “‘adversely affected the company.'” The owner of the company had “given thousands in campaign contributions to Republicans.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kathy Benedetto, in 2006, defended a plan by then-Congressman Richard Pombo </b>to allow Congress “to approve the sale of federal land in central Idaho that’s the site of one of America’s largest decorative stone quarries to its California operator.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservation groups criticized the effort saying that Pombo was “trying to bypass tough public scrutiny requirements for 520 acres near the Salmon River to benefit a business owner who’s given thousands in campaign contributions to Republicans.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Kathy Benedetto, who worked for Pombo at the time,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> said that completing an impact statement, as required by law, would “‘adversely'” affect the company. She said that the company was “‘in jeopardy of having to lay off a number of people, and maybe even close the quarry,'” and that the impact statement “‘would have delayed the process for a couple of years.'”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[John Miller, “<a href="http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/lawmaker-aims-to-sell-blm-land-to-quarry-operator/article_ff444f58-1425-517b-bc89-63d4ed01cea3.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Lawmaker aims to sell BLM land to quarry operator</a>” <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Associated Press,</em> 10/30/05]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto complained, “‘we have abundant resources in this country,'” but what “‘we do not have is access to those resources.'”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2008, at a legislative affairs panel at the Northwest Mining Association convention, Kathy Benedetto said, “‘we have abundant resources in this country. The thing we do not have is access to those resources.’ She emphasized that it was crucial that the domestic mining industry have access to energy and fuel. Yet, she added, 60% of the oil and gas reserves in the United States are not available for leasing from the federal government.” In the same panel, Benedetto advised “that climate change and/or global warming legislation could also put an additional burden on mining and the U.S. economy in general.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Dorothy Kosich, “<a href="http://www.mineweb.com/archive/tough-times-ahead-in-congress-for-u-s-miners/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Tough times ahead in Congress for U.S. miners</a>,” Mineweb, 12/08/08]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto has “liked” provocative social media posts, including a Rush Limbaugh post in which he called supporters of the Clintons “feminazis.”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She has also complained on social media about renewable energy and raising taxes on the top one percent, and she suggested that liberals think red states are “Dumbfuckistan.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto, in November 2016, “liked” a Rush Limbaugh Facebook post saying the <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New York Times</em>, NBC, CBS, <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Washington Post</em>, <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">LA Times</em>, and <em data-redactor-tag="em" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">USA Today</em> are “fake news.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook comment by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RushLimbaugh/posts/1524853370863652" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/23/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy Benedetto “liked” a Rush Limbaugh article from July 2016 about Bill and Hillary Clinton. In the article Limbaugh criticized the Clintons by calling their supporters “feminazis,” and alleged that President Clinton “manhandle(d) us.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook like by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RushLimbaugh/posts/1407417909273866" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 07/27/16, and “<a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/07/27/clinton_s_performance_was_great_but_i_ll_tell_you_the_real_story_of_bill_and_hillary/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Clinton’s Performance Was Great, But I’ll Tell You the Real Story of Bill and Hillary</a>,” The Rush Limbaugh Show, accessed 02/23/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In October 2013 one of Kathy Benedetto’s Facebook friends shared an image of wind turbines with the text “GREEN ISN’T WORKING.” He said that Americans “believe that 70 to 80 percent of electricity comes from renewables,” but it is actually “not quite 4 percent.” Benedetto commented, “it’s amazing what a little (or a lot) of propaganda can do for an issue.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook comment by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200801197688355&set=a.1016405166480.2003205.1115619899&type=1&opaqueCursor=AbqEH0wu1R0UCnPN6FwMz9uPznRytj&theater" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/23/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November 2014 one of Kathy Benedetto’s Facebook friends shared a political map of the US identifying red states as the “United States of America” and blue states as “Dumbfuckistan.” Benedetto commented, “the liberal left has this reversed.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook comment by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152822148294029&set=a.10150093181509029.283076.675229028&type=3&theater" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/23/17]</font></small></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September 2012 one of Kathy Benedetto’s Facebook friends shared an image of George W. Bush with a word bubble that said, “if Obama is elected for a second term, just think of the mess he will inherit this time.” Benedetto’s friend commented, “whenever God closes one door He always opens another, even though sometimes it’s Hell in the hallway.” Benedetto replied, “Hell in the Hallway – Nice.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook comment by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151164452108139&set=a.10150635887433139.416258.694293138&type=3&theater" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/23/17]</font></small></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a Facebook comment in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">January 2013 Kathy Benedetto complained about federal regulations. She said, “the top one percent do pay their fair share – the US has a progressive tax system – as you…earn more you are taxed at a higher rate. Try creating a job with no money. One of the problems in the US right now is the uncertainty with taxes, Obama care and an onslought [sic] of new regulations.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; letter-spacing: 0px;"><small style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Facebook comment by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WeAreNotDone/photos/a.361382213957293.83240.349661361796045/367258390036342/?type=1&theater" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Kathy Benedetto</a>, accessed 02/24/17]</font></small></p></div></div></div></div><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">As part of the review, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Magallanes</b> also met extensively with members of Utah’s Republican congressional delegation and their staffers, as well as several other state and local officials opposed to the monuments, her </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/17-01076ca_compressed.pdf" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:33;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="40" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">schedule</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> shows. She participated in calls with numerous Republican lawmakers in other states with monuments impacted by the review. And she met with several industry representatives, including the vice president of operations at Energy Fuels Resources, a uranium company that...

The Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hold its first oversight hearing on the monuments review on March 13, said Adam Sarvana, communications director for the panel’s Democrats.</span></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The committee has invited Zinke, who resigned and left last December amid corruption charges, to attend. But he declined</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, according to Sarvana.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, plans to investigate the monuments review. </font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He said if an individual involved with the review met with Energy Fuels before the review began, “all my suspicions as to the motivation behind the shrinkage would be validated.”</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think it would make our need to get at the bottom of it. … It would make it even more significant,” he said.</font></p><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In statements, both Interior and Energy Fuels Resources confirmed the meeting on April 5, 2017. Interior’s monument review began April 26.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels Resources vice president of marketing and corporate development, said in a Feb. 26 email, </span><b>“Our recollection</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> is that the April meeting was very brief, but we did inquire about the possibility of minor boundary adjustments to move the boundaries away from our existing operations.”</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Nonetheless, our official request was for minor boundary adjustments that would have reduced the area of the monument by a maximum of 2.6 percent. The President reduced the monument by 85 percent. We didn’t ask for that,” Moore said.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Critics don’t believe Energy Fuels’ account,</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> pointing to a comment letter filed during the review suggesting there could be many uranium deposits within the boundaries of the monument that could provide “valuable energy and mineral resources in the future.”</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They say the meeting is proof Interior’s 2017 assessment had a predetermined outcome of shrinking Bears Ears to benefit the uranium sector generally and Energy Fuels Resources specifically.</font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“The Trump Administration’s agenda has always been sell out our public lands first and manufacture a rationale — predicated on false information — afterwards. This latest revelation shows yet again they don’t even care to hide their dangerous motives so long as they can please the corporate polluters that have directed their every move,” </span><b>Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Emails released in two different Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club against Interior and the EPA also show Andrew Wheeler, confirmed Feb. 28 as the new EPA administrator, was integral to getting Energy Fuels Resources’ foot in the door before the review.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>Citing his prior work on the Trump presidential campaign, Wheeler reached out to set up the meeting and attended it</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">. His contacts with Interior during that period are not included in his lobbying disclosures. The firm he was working for, </span><b>Faegre Baker Daniels, </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">said it is reviewing those disclosures.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement, EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said the matter had nothing to do with Wheeler’s role at the agency.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“[He] has been very transparent concerning his work with Energy Fuels Resources, even discussing this during his confirmation process. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">He has consistently worked to comply with the Lobbying Disclosure Act; this particular matter involving Energy Fuels Resources and Bears Ears National Monument does not impact his work at EPA as this is not an agency-related issue,” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Abboud said.</span></font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 style="text-align: left; margin: 0.625rem 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uranium prospects</font></h2></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Previous reports by The Washington Post and The New York Times have outlined how coal, oil and other fossil fuel interests may have factored into the decisions made during the monuments review.</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Zinke, when he visited Bears Ears during the review, rejected the oil and gas argument.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We … have a pretty good idea of the oil and gas potential, so Bears Ears really isn’t about oil and gas at all,” Zinke told reporters in May 2017 while touring Bears Ears. “There is some uranium. [I’m] more concerned about the present mill and the proximity to it.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Energy Fuels owns that mill, known as White Mesa. Bears Ears’ original boundaries came within six miles of the site</span><b>, the only operational uranium processing mill in the United States.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">The monument was also 15 miles from its Daneros Mine, which is not operating but may reopen if the price of uranium rises.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A national monument, as well as any subsequent changes to federal regulations, could “significantly adversely impact” those projects and “could have a material adverse impact on the company,” Energy Fuels’ corporate filings stated.</font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the monuments review, the company raised several concerns. It noted the monument included a portion of road used for accessing the mine and encompassed air and water quality monitoring sites required under federal regulations.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Energy Fuels Resources also complained that the Bureau of Land Management’s environmental review had stalled expansion of Daneros and could affect future operations at White Mesa. If the Daneros expansion could be held up, the company wrote,  the boundaries “could have a chilling effect on future land uses not only within but also near the monument.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The company has at least 235 active claims on uranium deposits near both Daneros and White Mesa</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, according to a review of Bureau of Land Management data by Grand Canyon Trust, a public lands advocacy and watchdog group.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The trust’s review showed that over 100 claims within the original monument boundaries are held by Tigris Uranium Corporation, a subsidiary of enCore Energy Corporation, which it received after it sold those claims to the company in 2015. According to Energy Fuels’ annual corporate filings, it owns at least a 12.8 percent stake in enCore.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Trump shrank the monument in December 2017 from 1.35 million acres to a little over 200,000 acres, the new boundaries excluded all of those claims, according to Grand Canyon Trust. </font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those deposits aren’t worth much now because the price of uranium is so low. The company has said some of its mines, like Daneros, are on standby for this reason.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, the Trump administration is weighing whether it will set tariffs on cheaper foreign imports of uranium</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">. That effort, spurred by a petition to the Commerce Department by the firm and another company involved in uranium mining, Ur-Energy, could result in reactivating Daneros.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In its comment letter filed during the monument review, Energy Fuels noted “many other known uranium and vanadium deposits located within the newly created BENM that could provide valuable energy and mineral resources in the future.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It requested “any boundary revision provide an adequate buffer between the White Mesa mill, the Daneros mine and all valid existing mineral rights such that there will be no impact to our lawful existing or future operations.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an email, Moore said that the company only asked for “very minor boundary adjustments” and that it supports a mining ban on the lands formerly within the monument that Trump removed. He provided two maps which he said were what they suggested to Interior during the review, each showing only minor reductions near the White Mesa and Daneros properties.</font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We didn’t ask for a larger reduction. All along, we were simply seeking minor boundary adjustments to create buffers between our existing operations and the monument,” Moore said. “I’m not sure how we can be more clear, we have no interest in mining inside of BENM.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Groups supportive of the monument’s original boundaries are not convinced.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You want to take people at their word, but the comment letter is pretty clear,” said Tim Peterson, cultural landscapes program director for Grand Canyon Trust.</font></p><h2 style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.625rem 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Preordained’ decision?</font></h2><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Energy Fuels first reached out to Interior, it only mentioned the mill and the mine.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“I worked on energy and environmental policy for Mr. Trump during the campaign. I have a client that I would like to get before the Secretary, Energy Fuels,” </span><b>Wheeler</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> wrote in a March 27 email to Amanda Kaster, at the time one of Zinke’s aides.</span></font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“They have two uranium facilities bordering each side of Bears Ears national monument in Utah.</span><b>They can come to DC at any time.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> What is the best way for me to request a meeting with the Secretary? I’m just not sure who I should reach out to,” Wheeler said.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On April 5, Wheeler, Energy Fuels executive William Paul Goranson, and Darrin Munoz, another lobbyist at Faegre Baker Daniels, met with </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Kathleen Benedetto</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">, at the time a senior adviser to Zinke,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); font-weight: inherit;"> according to visitor logs and Benedetto’s schedule. Her schedule was first obtained by independent journalist Jimmy Tobias via a public records request.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Through an Interior spokeswoman, Benedetto said she alone took the meeting and Zinke did not participate. Zinke’s personal schedule has an hourlong period, 30 minutes after the meeting began, during which his whereabouts are unaccounted for.</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">In a statement, Benedetto said </span><b>she didn’t recall </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">the meeting with the “same specificity” as the uranium firm. She did note she recalled “passing along some information that the company provided that included a map of its facilities relative to the Bears Ears boundary.”</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">According to an Interior spokeswoman, she likely relayed that information to Downey Magallanes, who was at the time a special assistant to Zinke and would become a point person on the eventual monuments review. </span><b>Magallanes and Benedetto’s schedules both show they had a one-on-one meeting later that day.</b></font></p></div></div><div class="stylesAscendeumWrapper-sc-14jcieo-0 iCbbsB" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; clear: both; display: flex; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div class="rollcall-story" data-aaad="true" data-aa-adunit="/4218/rollcall/story" data-aa-targeting="{" tags="tags" arizona="Arizona" barack="Barack" obama="Obama" campaigns="Campaigns" democrats="Democrats" donald="Donald" j="J" trump="Trump" energy="Energy" epa="EPA" executive="Executive" branch="Branch" house="House" independents="Independents" lobbying="Lobbying" new="New" york="York" orrin="Orrin" g="G" hatch="Hatch" raul="Raul" m="M" grijalva="Grijalva" republicans="Republicans" ryan="Ryan" zinke="Zinke" utah="Utah" washington="Washington" categories="categories" environment="environment" section="section" congress="Congress" subject="subject" author="author" jacob="Jacob" holzman="Holzman" keyword="keyword" www.rollcall.com="www.rollcall.com" urlpath="UrlPath" seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review="seeking-to-shrink-bears-ears-uranium-firm-met-with-interior-before-review" index="index" style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div theme="[object Object]" class="" provider="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Energy Fuels Resources was not the only party to lobby for reducing Bears Ears. Its designation was staunchly opposed by the Utah congressional delegation, most prominently former GOP Sen. <a class="memberLink" href="https://www.rollcall.com/members?493&utm_source=memberLink?utm_source=memberLink" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;">Orrin G. Hatch</a>, and state politicians. They said oil and gas deposits within the monument’s boundaries could have been used for raising money for public schools and feared losing such a revenue source.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">However, Aaron Weiss, deputy director for the </span><b>Center for Western Priorities,</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> said Interior confirming it held a meeting to discuss cuts to Bears Ears before the review began in earnest is “admitting that they were already going after monument boundaries even before the president ordered the review.”</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This monument review was a sham, and the outcome was preordained,” said Weiss, whose public lands advocacy group is a frequent critic of the Trump administration’s policies.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.875rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about suggestions the monument’s review was predetermined, the Interior Department declined to comment.</font></p></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpo tag</font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/william-perry-pendley">https://www.huffpost.com/topic/william-perry-pendley</a></font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">what fresh hell under radar</font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> Trump will formally nominate William Perry Pendley, a self-proclaimed “sagebrush rebel” with extreme anti-environmental views and a long history of advocating for the sale of federal lands in the West, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management.</span><span style="font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> [</span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-william-perry-pendley-bureau-land-management_n_5e02645de4b0843d3601dd79" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Huffpo</em></a><span style="font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">]</span></font></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-william-perry-pendley-bureau-land-management_n_5e02645de4b0843d3601dd79"><font size="4" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-william-perry-pendley-bureau-land-management_n_5e02645de4b0843d3601dd79</font></a></p><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/donald-trump" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none; background-color: rgba(13, 190, 152, 0.7); padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: none; transition: background-color 350ms ease-out 0s;">rump</a> will formally nominate William Perry Pendley, a self-proclaimed “sagebrush rebel” with extreme anti-environmental views and a long history of advocating for the sale of federal lands in the West, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management. </font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pendley was </span><a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2019/07/15/stories/1060743503" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="2" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">tapped last July</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> for a senior policy position at BLM, an agency of the Department of the Interior, and quickly elevated to acting chief. The backdoor appointment put him in charge of overseeing 245 million acres of </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/public-land" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="3" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">public land</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> — more than 10% of the entire U.S. landmass — and 700 million subsurface mineral acres. It also enraged environmentalists and </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-perry-pendley-federal-land_n_5d427083e4b0acb57fc7324e" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="4" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">sparked fears of a public lands sell-off</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. </span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="3" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pendley, a native of Wyoming, is the former longtime president of Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative nonprofit that has pushed for the government to sell off millions of federal acres. He’s written several books about Western land issues, including one titled “Sagebrush Rebel,” a reference to the Sagebrush Rebellion movement of the 1970s and ’80s that sought to remove lands from federal control. In a January 2016 op-ed published by The National Review, he wrote: “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.”</font></span></p></div><div class="teads-entry-placement js-teads-entry-placement" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teads-entrycontent" id="teads-entry-desktop" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="4" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Trump administration has </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-public-lands-sale-transfer_n_5c0048b1e4b027f1097be381" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="5" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">vowed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> not to dispose of public lands. Yet it has cozied up to members of the pro-land transfer movement and </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/657542759/critic-of-federal-public-lands-management-to-join-department-of-the-interior" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="6" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">tapped</span></a><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-public-lands-sale-transfer_n_5c0048b1e4b027f1097be381" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="7" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> several</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> opponents of federal land policy for high-ranking department positions. Pendley has </span><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/30/william-perry-pendley-rebutting-a-popular-myth-about-my-position-on-public-lands/" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="8" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">dismissed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> concerns about his stance on federal lands and said his personal views and past statements ― including some that described climate science as “</span><a href="https://twitter.com/Sagebrush_Rebel/status/1133432004169461760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1133432004169461760&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediamatters.org%2Flegacy%2Fsenior-bureau-land-management-official-right-wing-pundit-who-has-said-climate-change-isnt" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="9" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">junk science</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">” and comparing immigrants to a “</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/william-perry-pendley-blm-kfile/index.html" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:4;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="10" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">cancer</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">” ― are “irrelevant” to leading a bureau. </span> </font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="5" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-appoint-individuals-key-administration-posts-43/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:5;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="12" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">release</a> announcing Trump’s intent to nominate him to the director post, the White House said Pendley “has worked to increase recreational opportunities on and access to our Nation’s public lands, heighten concern for the impact of wild horses and burros on public lands, and increase awareness of the Bureau’s multiple-use mission.”</font></p></div><figure class="content-list-component image yr-content-list-image" data-rapid-subsec="entry-image" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 40px auto; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 0; text-align: center; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><div class="imagemeta-wrapper js-image-meta-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: left; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 204, 204);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">[</span>
</font><figcaption class="imagecaption" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 8px; line-height: 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this photo from Oct. 11, 2019, William Perry Pendley speaks at a conference for journalists in Fort Collins, Colorado.]</font></figcaption></div></figure><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pendley also has ties to Lyndon LaRouche, the late cult leader, convicted fraudster and paranoid conspiracy theorist, as HuffPost first </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-perry-pendley-lyndon-larouche-environment_n_5db34813e4b079eb95a33d3e" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:6;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="13" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">reported</span></a></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. Pendley published anti-environmental pieces in </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">21st Century Science & Technology</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, a fringe LaRouche magazine loaded with pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, and documents indicate he was at a 1994 conference where two of LaRouche’s associates called on anti-environmental groups to help kill Senate support for an international biodiversity treaty. Pendley dismissed his connections to LaRouche as “irrelevant."</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">sen Tom Udall of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the interior and environment appropriations subcommittee, told HuffPost that Pendley’s writings in 21st Century Science & Technology</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> were “yet another clear sign he should not be in charge of the BLM” and should step down. </span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="8" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Trump Administration should nominate someone who believes in the agency’s mission and supports protecting our thriving outdoor recreation economy and iconic wildlife—not a longtime advocate of selling off U.S. public lands to the highest bidder,” Udall said in an email.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="9" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nearly 100 environmental organizations signed on to a <a href="https://www.westernwatersheds.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Pendley-resignation-letter-final-2.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:9;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="19" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">letter</a> in late December demanding Pendley resign or be removed from office. The groups argued that he poses an “existential threat” to America’s public lands.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="10" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“President Trump is doubling down on his record as the most <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/analysis-trump-public-lands-rollbacks_n_5ec59af1c5b6df8b159bf287" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:10;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="20" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">anti-nature president</a> in U.S. history,” Kate Kelly, public lands director at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said in a statement Friday. “The nomination of William Perry Pendley sends a clear signal that Trump plans to move ahead with a radical, sweeping, and unpopular sell-off of America’s public lands.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="11" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pendley had <a href="https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/acting-director-of-blm-says-he-d-like-to-live/article_cc9c8868-01ef-11ea-8c0e-20677ce05640.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:11;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="21" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">voiced interest</a> in becoming BLM’s permanent director, telling the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado, in November that he would welcome the opportunity but that it was ultimately up to the White House. <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The job requires Senate confirmation, meaning Pendley will soon face tough questions under oath from Democrats who say he’s unfit to lead the powerful agency. </span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="12" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pendley’s first stint in government was under James Watt, President Ronald Reagan’s Interior Department chief, who is widely considered among the most anti-environment Cabinet appointees in U.S. history. Pendley joined Watt’s Interior Department in 1981 as deputy assistant secretary of the Minerals Management Service and has been described as Watt’s “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/Pendley%20joined%20Watt%E2%80%99s%20Interior%20Department%20in%201981%20as%20deputy%20assistant%20secretary%20of%20the%20Minerals%20Management%20Service." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="22" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">ideological twin</a>.” </font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="13" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along with extreme views on federal land policy, Pendley detests the Endangered Species Act, once writing the conservation law seeks “<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/04/bundy-ranch-standoff-could-spark-new-sagebrush-rebellion-william-perry-pendley/" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:13;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="23" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">to kill or prevent anybody from making a living on federal land</a>.” He has sued the federal government numerous times in the last three decades, railed often against environmental “terrorists” and “eco-fascists,” and <a href="https://twitter.com/Sagebrush_Rebel/status/1093031500524617729" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:13;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid_p="24" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">compared</a> the climate crisis to a “unicorn” because “neither exists.”</font></p><p style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">related:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.75rem;" /><div style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s Public Lands Chief Wrote For A Cult Extremist’s Magazine</font></span></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">U.S. Public Lands Chief Says His Positions On Climate, Immigrants Don’t Matter</span></font></div><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hatred For The Endangered Species Act Runs Deep At Trump’s Interior Department

</span><div style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Politics News Donald Trump Federal Lands William Perry Pendley Interior Department</span></div><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">

Chris D’Angelo

Environment Reporter, HuffPost

</span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interior-department-officials-endangered-species-act_n_5d54627ae4b083855066faca"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interior-department-officials-endangered-species-act_n_5d54627ae4b083855066faca</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For <span style="white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">20 minutes, Wyoming lawyer William Perry Pendley railed against “environmental extremists” and boasted about the legal battles his right-wing nonprofit had waged on behalf of Western property owners. The tirade came at a September 2014 </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXToklCAPE" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1" style="white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">conference</span></a><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;"> of the conservative American Dream Coalition in Denver.</span></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">
</span></font></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmentalists primarily use three laws, including the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as tools to “drive people off the land” and into cities where they can be “controlled,” he said. At the time, Pendley was president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a Colorado-based nonprofit law firm that focuses on “protecting property rights” and advocates for selling off millions of federal acres in the West.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="3" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’ve gone from protecting the warm and fuzzies to protecting the cold and slimies,” he said. “It was supposed to apply only to federal land. Today, it applies to private property ― coast to coast, border to border ― which leads us here in the West to say what? ‘Shoot, shovel and shut up’ if you encounter one of those critters on your property.”</font></span></p></div><div class="teads-entry-placement js-teads-entry-placement" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teads-entrycontent" id="teads-entry-desktop" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="4" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He continued: “That, by the way, is not legal advice.”</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="5" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>“Shoot, shovel and shut up” ― also known as the “3-S treatment</b>” ― is a strategy extreme property rights advocates have embraced for getting rid of unwanted, imperiled species on private land. Pendley has also written that the law underlying federal species protection is used “</span><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/04/bundy-ranch-standoff-could-spark-new-sagebrush-rebellion-william-perry-pendley/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:5;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="2" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">to kill or prevent anybody from making a living on federal land</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">.”</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Late last month, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-perry-pendley-federal-land_n_5d427083e4b0acb57fc7324e" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:6;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="3" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">tapped Pendley to serve as acting director</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> of the Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the Interior Department that oversees 245 million acres of </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/public-land" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:6;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="4" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">public land</span></a></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, or more than one-third of the federal estate.</span> <b>This week, the Trump administration </b></span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-endangered-species-rule_n_5cf7b7b4e4b01713bed4df9b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:6;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="5" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>finalized rules that significantly weaken</b></span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b> the Endangered Species Act. </b>Among other things, the changes will make it easier for government agencies to remove species from the protected list and limit their ability to account for the impacts of future climate change. The rollback comes on the heels of a United Nations report that found </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biodiversity-report-ipbes-nature-crisis_n_5ccee4e1e4b0e4d757341215" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:6;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="6" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">up to 1 million species around the globe are at risk of extinction</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> due to human activities.</span></font></p></div><div class="pg-placeholder" id="public-good-placeholder" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><figure class="content-list-component image yr-content-list-image" data-rapid-subsec="entry-image" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 40px auto; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 0; text-align: center; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div class="imagemeta-wrapper js-image-meta-wrapper" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: left; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 204, 204);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">[PIX</span>
</font><figcaption class="imagecaption" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 8px; line-height: 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interior deputy Susan Combs, pictured in 2010, spent decades as an official in Texas fighting conservation efforts alongside the state’s oil and gas industry.</font></figcaption></div></figure><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="7" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That the Interior Department took aim at the ESA comes as no surprise when one considers some of the people in high-ranking posts. Pendley is one of several agency officials who detest what is arguably America’s most important law for protecting imperiled plants and animals.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="8" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Susan Combs, a former Texas comptroller who was </span><a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/us-senate-confirms-susan-combs-assistant-secretary-department-interior-bipartisan" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:8;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="8" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">confirmed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> in June as Interior’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, once equated proposed ESA listings to “</span><a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/how-texas-fights-endangered-species-protections-critter-critter/s4lEk5VfNgr4InfODrI4FK/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:8;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="9" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">incoming Scud missiles</span></a></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>” headed for her state’s oil and gas-rich economy. </b>As a state lawmaker in the 1990s, she championed legislation </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">prohibiting state wildlife officials from gathering endangered species data</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> from private lands without permission, <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1995-10-13/529912/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:8;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="10" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">according to The Austin Chronicle</a>. As Texas comptroller, she </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-environment-lizard-idUSBRE85C1M720120613" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:8;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="11" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">fought against the federal government’s proposal</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to list the dune sagebrush lizard ― an effort that primarily benefited fossil fuel interests. And in 2015, Combs led three groups in a failed effort to </span><a href="http://lonestarsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Petition-to-delist-the-golden-cheeked-warbler-6-29-2015.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:8;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="12" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">petition</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to have federal protections removed for the golden-cheeked warbler, an endangered songbird native to central Texas.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="9" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Karen Budd-Falen, Interior’s deputy solicitor for fish, wildlife and parks, has called the ESA “</span><a href="http://www.defendruralamerica.com/files/KBFtestimony20111206.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:9;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="13" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">a sword to tear down the American economy</span></a></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, drive up food, energy and housing costs and wear down and take out rural communities and counties.” As a private lawyer, she was involved in several ESA-related legal disputes, including representing parties accused of violating the law.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="10" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During a speech at a conservative summit in 2016, Budd-Falen asserted that she would “<a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/libertysummit2016/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:10;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="14" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">repeal the ESA in a heartbeat</a>,” contradicting comments she made during <a href="http://www.defendruralamerica.com/files/KBFtestimony20111206.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:10;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="15" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">congressional testimony</a> in 2011.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></span></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Budd-Falen was among several Interior officials who briefed reporters about the ESA overhaul on Monday.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="11" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">kathy Benedetto,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> a top adviser at Interior, </span></span><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1303496/afadailybulletn00906.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="21" data-v9y="1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">said in 1995</span></a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><b> that the ESA “states that plants, animals and bugs are more important than human beings and that’s morally bankrupt,</b>” according to a </span><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1303496/afadailybulletn00906.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="22" data-v9y="1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">daily newsletter</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"> from the Alliance for America, a property rights group that was “dedicated to bringing human concerns into environmental decision-making.”</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="13" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Most species became extinct before man showed up,” Benedetto added. “The earth changes constantly.”</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="14" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time, Benedetto was an executive committee member at the Grassroots ESA Coalition, which was, as the Alliance for America described it, working to “throw out” the 1973 law.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="15" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>Then there’s Interior chief Bernhardt, a former fossil fuel lobbyist and lawyer who has been a key figure in the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.</b> In 2008, while working as the department’s top lawyer during the Bush administration, Bernhardt </span><a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24504931.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:15;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="23" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">issued a legal memo</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> that concluded it’s impossible to prove planet-warming greenhouse gases are impacting imperiled species and instructed federal agencies not to consider climate change when making listing decisions. As an industry lawyer, he sued the federal government over its implementation of the act. And as an official in the Trump administration, he intervened to block a scientific report by the Fish and Wildlife Service about the threat certain pesticides pose to more than 1,000 endangered species, as an </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/politics/endangered-species-david-bernhardt.html?module=inline" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:15;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="24" data-v9y="0" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">investigation by The New York Times</a> uncovered earlier this year.</span></font></p></div><figure class="content-list-component image yr-content-list-image" data-rapid-subsec="entry-image" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 40px auto; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 0; text-align: center; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><div class="imagemeta-wrapper js-image-meta-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: left; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 204, 204);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[
</font><figcaption class="image__caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 8px; line-height: 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The black-footed ferret was brought back from the brink of extinction by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captive breeding program. The species has been reintroduced in the wild, but is still listed under the Endangered Species Act.</font></figcaption></div></figure><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="16" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bernhardt and the agency have </span><a href="https://twitter.com/DOIPressSec/status/1161394614340923393" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:16;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="25" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">defended</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> the ESA rework, saying it will increase transparency and lift regulatory burdens without negatively impacting species recovery.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="17" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">“We celebrate the</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> #EndangeredSpeciesAct</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> as the nation’s foremost conservation law w/ the ultimate goal of recovering the most imperiled species,” Interior’s press office wrote in </span><a href="https://twitter.com/DOIPressSec/status/1161394617138499587" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:17;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="26" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">a post</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to Twitter. “We are updating ESA implementation to make it more clear, consistent & better address conservation challenges of the 21st century.”</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="18" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s clear, however, is that there are several people walking the halls of Interior’s headquarters in Washington who don’t share that sentiment and want to see sweeping revisions to the ESA. And that’s exactly what environmental groups say the American public is getting with the new rules, which alter how federal agencies implement portions of the law.</font></span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="19" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You’ll hear from the administration that a lot of these changes are just kind of cleaning up and technical in nature,” Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of the conservation nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife and a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton, told reporters Monday. “But this package of regulations in no way will improve species conservation, they’ll do quite the opposite. They’ll seriously undermine the Endangered Species Act’s effectiveness in significant and important ways.”</font></span></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>