Mead, M Gov

wvp 2017

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke released his review of the greater sage-grouse conservation plan. The original conservation plan was implemented two years ago after extensive work and collaboration by a bipartisan group of Western stakeholders, including federal, state and local governments, as well as ranchers, farmers, sports groups, conservationists and industry representatives.

This order is another reckless decision made by special interests and Washington politicians behind closed doors – it is a clear giveaway to industry that undermines years of work by Western governors, communities and stakeholders,” said Chris Saeger, Executive Director of the Western Values Project. “These irresponsible changes will not only put this species at risk, but will jeopardize access to public lands and the outdoor economy that Western communities rely on. Secretary Zinke’s careless plan ignores bipartisan, science based results, and could well fast-track the greater sage-grouse’s listing as an endangered species.”

Background:

After years of work and cooperation by federal agencies, Western states and diverse stakeholders,a plan was released in 2015 to conserve habitat for the greater sage-grouse to avoid listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service specifically cited habitat preservation as the reason for removing the bird from consideration.

This year, Republican Governor of Wyoming Matt Mead and Democratic Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper sent two letters to Secretary Zinke opposing changes to the plan. Neither letter has received a public response from the Secretary.

Western Governors met with Secretary Zinke behind closed doors at their annual Western Governors Association meeting about the imperiled bird. Again, urging the Secretary not to make wholesale changes to the plans. Those requests where ignored.

Listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act would result in numerous lawsuits from both sides of the issue, and prohibit development across a wide swath of public land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mead

matthew Hansen Mead (born March 11, 1962) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Wyoming from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming from 2001 to 2007.

Early life and career

Mead, the son of Peter Bradford Mead and Mary Elisabeth Hansen Mead, was born and reared in Jackson, Wyoming. Mead graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in radio/television from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he was a member of the Bengal Lancer fraternity among other pursuits. He earned a J.D. degree from the University of Wyoming College of Law at Laramie. After law school, he served as a county and federal prosecutor and also practiced in a private law firm.

U.S. Attorney

In 2001, Mead was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming by President George W. Bush. He served until June 2007, when he resigned to seek the Senate seat vacated by the death of fellow Republican Craig L. Thomas.^[1] His resignation was required under the Hatch Act of 1939.^[2]

In accordance with Wyoming state law,^[3] the Republican Party selected the three candidates from which Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal could make his selection. On the third ballot, The Republican State Central Committee, by fourteen votes, eliminated Mead from consideration. Freudenthal chose State Senator John Barrasso; the others he considered were former State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne and former Republican State Chairman and lobbyist Tom Sansonetti, who had been an aide to Thomas.^[4]

Governor

2010 election

Main article: 2010 Wyoming gubernatorial election

Mead visiting Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2011

In 2010, Mead won the Republican gubernatorial primary with 30,272 votes, defeating State Auditor Rita Meyer, who polled 29,558 votes, despite Meyer's endorsement by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.^[5] Fort Bridger rancher Ron Micheli finished third, with 27,592 votes; State House Speaker Colin M. Simpson finished fourth with 16,673 votes.^[6]

With Freudenthal not running for a third term, because of term limits,^[7] Mead was a heavy favorite in the general election; Wyoming is heavily Republican.

Mead's campaign emphasized his support for gun rights. He opposed gay marriage and abortion, but stated that there should be exceptions to allow an abortion when the woman's health or life is at stake and in cases of rape and incest. On November 2, 2010, Mead easily defeated Leslie Petersen, the former chairwoman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, receiving 72% of the vote to Petersen's 25%.^[8]

2014 election

Main article: 2014 Wyoming gubernatorial election

In late January 2013, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill, a Republican, announced that she would be a candidate in Wyoming's 2014 governor's race. A Tea Party favorite, Hill would face Mead in the Republican primary on August 19, 2014.^[9] Earlier in January, Mead had signed legislation sharply reducing the responsibilities of Hill's office, making the position largely ceremonial.^[10]

Mead named Rich Crandall, a moderate Republican member of the Arizona Senate and a political ally of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, to fill the newly established position of director of the Wyoming Education Department, an office that had most of the powers formerly held by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In January 2014, the Wyoming Supreme Court rebuffed Mead and declared that the legislature had overstepped its constitutional powers when it stripped Hill of most of her office duties.^[11] Mead unsuccessfully appealed the decision; Hill resumed her duties in May 2014, just a few weeks before the beginning of the gubernatorial primary campaign.

Meanwhile, two Republican lawmakers who said they had no ties to Hill called for a special prosecutor to investigate Mead's conduct in the matter. Representatives Gerald Gay of Casper and Stephen Watt of Rock Springs said that Mead abused the powers of his office and used funds prior to legal authorization to discredit Hill.^[12]

Gay said, "I am in possession of information and internal email correspondence that gives rise to the concern that the governor has used state monies to manufacture allegations against a political opponent. (...) The public knows an abuse of power when they see it, and this (is) one of the most egregious examples of abuse of power in Wyoming history. (...) I believe there were political motivations because of the timeline that was involved. (...) The things I have found are egregious enough that they have to be stopped immediately and to make sure they never happen again."^[12]

Gay claimed that a special prosecutor was needed because he did not trust Wyoming Attorney General Peter K. Michael, a Mead appointee, to conduct a fair probe. Michael said that his office does not prosecute crimes except in rare situations, and would not in this particular matter.^[12]

Mead handily won re-nomination in the 2014 Republican primary, with 53,626 votes (55 percent), compared to Dr. Taylor Haynes' 31,490 (32 percent), and Hill's 12,443 (13 percent).^[13] In the November 4 general election, Mead handily defeated Pete Gosar, the former Democratic Party state chairman and the brother of a Republican U.S. representative from Arizona, Paul Gosar. In the same election, Republican Jillian Balow, backed by Mead, won election to succeed Hill as the education superintendent.^[14]

Administration

On October 26, 2012, Mead named Buffalo, Wyoming, businessman and rancher Mark Gordon as the state treasurer, to succeed Joseph B. Meyer, who died in office.^[15]

On February 17, 2015, Mead vetoed legislation intended to prevent the state from permanently confiscating an individual's property through civil forfeiture until after a felony conviction had been attained. The legislation, Senate File 14, gained strong popular support and passed through the Wyoming Legislature, with majorities in excess of 2/3 in both houses.^[16] An attempt to override the veto failed.^[17]

Personal life

Mead has an older brother, Bradford Scott "Brad" Mead, a Jackson attorney, and an older sister, Muffy Mead-Ferro of Salt Lake City, the author of Confessions of a Slacker Mom.^[18]

Mead's mother, Mary, was the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 1990. Considered an expert horsewoman, she died in 1996, on her 61st birthday, in a horseback accident while working cattle in Grand Teton National Park. In 2003, Mead and his brother and sister put their family ranch in the park up for sale; the price was said to be $110 million.^[19]

Mead's paternal aunt, Andrea Mead Lawrence, was an alpine ski racer who competed in three Winter Olympic Games and won two gold medals for the United States.^[20]

Mead and his wife Carol have two children.^[21]

Electoral history

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https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/01/25:{/american-fuel-petrochemical-manufacturers:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:-rallied-republican-governors-trump-rollback-auto-standards

no lnx many

How This Oil Refiners Group Rallied GOP Governors' Support for Trump’s Rollback of Auto Standards

By Ben Jervey • Friday, January 25, 2019

As the Trump administration worked to revise and relax federal fuel economy and emissions standards for cars and light trucks, an oil refiners trade group worked connections with Republican governors to rally support for the proposed rollback.

Emails obtained by Documented, a watchdog group that tracks corporate influence in government, revealed that the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) were actively recruiting Republican Governors to sign onto a public comment letter supporting the weaker CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) standards, while also “shopping around” a pre-written op-ed with language borrowed from the American Energy Alliance, a free market advocacy group run by a former Koch Industries lobbyist.

A blockbuster New York Times investigation published in December revealed how AFPM, using a front group called Energy4US, deployed Facebook advertisements to prompt thousands of identical public comments filed in the Federal Register supporting the proposed rule. An earlier article on the Facebook ads by ProPublica had linked AFPM to Energy4US, and researchers at DeSmog's KochvsClean had since connected the front group to more than one-quarter of all public comments that the Department of Transportation (DOT) had received on the proposed rule, while also revealing that the Consumer Energy Alliance was connected to the campaign.

In addition to the more than 3,000 identical comments, the emails obtained by Documented through a number of state open records requests revealed a much broader influence campaign.

Email messages show AFPM representatives reaching out to the staff of Republican governors, soliciting signatures for a formal letter that was eventually submitted to the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In another email, AFPM’s Senior Vice President of Federal and Regulatory Affairs shared a pre-written draft of anop-ed with the Wyoming Governor's office, asking if Governor Matt Mead would consider putting his name on it.

How AFPM Rallied Republican Governors to Support the Rollback

AFPM deployed the corporate-backed Republican Governors Association (RGA) and their policy arm, the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee (RGPPC), which helped circulate the letter. AFPM contributed more than $200,000 to RGA during the 2018 election cycle, according to IRS filings.

GOOD on frack?

Regulators

In June 2012 it was reported that the Petroleum Association of Wyoming was spending up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay federal regulators' wages and overtime in an effort to speed up the permitting process for new wells, as permit requests have more than doubled from about 100 to nearly 250 at the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Casper, which is short-staffed.^[14]

In January 2013 State Sen. Floyd Esquibel, a Democrat from Cheyenne, introduced a bill, Senate File 157, which would require initial groundwater sampling before drilling begin. The Sen. said he wants to avoid a situation like what is playing out in Pavillion, Wyo., where the EPA has found pollutants used in fracking chemicals in local water supplies.^[15]

Wyoming draft regulations for drilling

On June 13, 2013 Wyoming Governor Matt Mead unveiled draft regulations that would establish a groundwater testing program for oil and gas operations in the state. It's been reported that these draft rules, if accepted, would require oil and gas operators to conduct tests establishing the quality of groundwater around sites before drilling begins and to follow up later with tests to monitor for potential impacts. The proposed regulations were met with applause by Environmental Defense Fund.^[16]

Regulatory violations

In 2012 the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality recorded 204 oil and gas production spills, and pursued water quality fines against 10 producers.^[17]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wyoming_and_coal

Legislative and legal issues

Coal industry lobbyists have proposed three draft bills in response to a request from state lawmakers about how to make Wyoming more competitive in luring "clean coal" projects. Each bill would cut taxes. One would apply to sales and use taxes, another to ad valorem taxes, and another to severance taxes. The draft bills went to the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee for consideration on November 18, 2008.^[35]

In early 2010 the Wyoming Legislature appropriated $45 million in federal Abandoned Mine Land funds to the University of Wyoming for continued work on carbon sequestration. Researchers from the university are seeking additional funds to continue their studies.^[36]

State sues EPA over greenhouse gas regulations

In February 2011, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead filed a legal challenge to the U.S. EPA's decision to override states that were unable or unwilling to enforce permits for the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Gov. Mead argued EPA didn't allow enough time for Wyoming to meet new requirements before enforcing its federal plan that took effect on January 2, 2011. The Wyoming attorney general's office filed three petitions with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver before the Feb. 11, 2011 deadline to challenge the agency rules.^[37]

Governors request federal funding for "clean coal"

On February 22, 2009, the governors of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah submitted a letter to President Obama asking for funding to develop "clean coal" projects in their states. Wyoming Gov. Dave Fruedenthal, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, argued that developing a cleaner way to burn coal is essential to reducing emissions, protecting national security, and creating new jobs. The letter also said that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 approved federal cost sharing for a clean-coal demonstration project using coal mined in the West, but that no project was ever funded. According to the governors, the three states are ready to start developing new demonstration projects and retrofitting existing plants with carbon capture and storage technologies.^[38]

Judge forces EPA to address haze rule in four Western states

On September 30, 2011 a federal judge approved a deal requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize by plans to reduce haze-causing pollution from coal-fired power plants and other sources in four Western states by 2012. The Environmental Defense Fund, WildEarth Guardians and National Parks and Conservation Assocation sued the EPA for failing to address haze-causing emissions, which are required under the Clean Air Act in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and North Dakota.^[39]