US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is leaving his post at the end of the year, President Donald Trump says, in the latest high profile departure from his administration.

The interior department oversees federal land, including national parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone.

Mr Zinke has faced scrutiny over expensive trips in US Park Police helicopters and on private jets.

Costly alterations at his department also came in for criticism, including reports that three sets of double doors in his office were being upgraded at a cost of nearly $139,000 (£110,000). He later said he had negotiated the price down to $75,000.

The New York Times has also published a guide to the investigations into Mr Zinke.

According to the newspaper, he is facing scrutiny for blocking a Native American casino expansion after meetings with lobbyists opposing the plan, and for possible breaches of the Hatch Act – which stops federal employees from influencing elections by using their office.

Source:  BBC – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46580094

 

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump announced Saturday morning that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will depart from his administration at the end of the year.

The departure comes amid multiple ethics investigations into Zinke as well as a staff shake-up among Trump administration officials, including the President’s chief of staff. Trump announced Friday that his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, will become his acting chief of staff, replacing John Kelly, at the end of the year.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that administration officials said the White House had been pushing Zinke to resign for weeks and that he was told he had until year’s end to leave or he would be fired. Citing two people familiar with the discussion, The New York Times also reported that Kelly’s team had told Zinke that he might risk a potentially humiliating firing if he didn’t leave his post by the end of the year.

Source: CNN – https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/15/politics/ryan-zinke/index.html

 

After Zinke Resignation, Industry Lobbyists Will Lead Country’s Top Two Environmental Agencies

The resignation of Ryan Zinke as head of the Interior Department is opening to way for a man who has long advocated for the industry he now regulates to take over the department, at least temporarily. And that means that the top two agencies that deal with the environment in the United States government will be run by men who were once paid by the industry they must now regulate, notes the Guardian. Zinke’s number two, David Bernhardt, will take over as secretary of the interior when he steps down at the end of the year. Although it’s a temporary appointment for now it could very well become permanent. After all, that’s what happened with Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, who will be nominated to maintain the post he has been holding as acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Bernhardt has long been seen as the man behind the scenes at Interior to run the president’s deregulation agenda. “Bernhardt has been running the policy show ever since he’s been there as deputy secretary,” Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the Western Energy Alliance, told the New York Times.

Prior to his life in government, Berhardt was a lobbyist for the oil, gas, and water industries, all of which are subject to decisions from Interior.

Source: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/12/ryan-zinke-resignation-opens-way-for-industry-insiders-to-lead-countrys-top-two-environmental-agencies.html

 

WAV Comment – well how about that ? – Berhardt was a lobbyist for the oil, gas, and water industries.  Impartial obviously !

 

 

Dear Mark,

The Polar Bear Seas.

That’s what they call the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, together home to most of Alaska’s imperiled polar bear population.

The Beaufort is also the latest target of President Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s unrelenting drive to hand over our Arctic wilderness and U.S. coastlines to his oil industry allies.

Drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea would be extraordinarily dangerous — the risk of oil spills there is extremely high, and cleaning up spills in such rugged and remote waters is functionally impossible.

The Interior Department is formally accepting public comments on its risky drilling gambit until January. So we only have a few weeks to flood the Interior Department with thousands of citizen letters opposing drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Take action now — submit your Letter of Opposition to Trump’s Interior Department and say NO to drilling in the Beaufort Sea and all our ocean waters.

An oil spill in the Beaufort Sea would be disastrous for the Arctic’s vulnerable wildlife, especially its threatened polar bear population and the region’s many species of whales, seals, and sea birds.

And the Beaufort Sea sits right off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, itself a target of Trump’s all-out oil drilling onslaught. A spill in the Beaufort could devastate the coastline of the Arctic Refuge, blanketing it with a deadly slick of toxic crude.

With the growing threat of climate change, which is warming the Arctic faster than any other part of Earth, America should be moving away from dirty fossil fuels and doubling down on clean energy.

More reading – https://www.ktoo.org/2018/01/04/trump-administration-proposes-vast-increase-offshore-oil-leasing-alaska/

Stop the Trump administration’s new Arctic drilling plans — submit your letter today.

Last spring, thousands of NRDC supporters mobilized to send messages opposing drilling in the Arctic Refuge and Beaufort Sea. And NRDC and our allies filed a lawsuit in federal court to block this illegal oil drilling scheme, and that legal battle continues.

But Trump and Zinke are intent on moving ahead with their drive to drill in these pristine wild places. In addition to their destructive plans for the Beaufort, the Trump administration is about to release a disastrous five-year plan that will likely call for a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling along nearly all of America’s precious coasts.

NRDC is prepared to fight offshore drilling on both these fronts and more. But in the meantime, please submit your Letter of Opposition to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke demanding that he halt his department’s unrelenting push to open the Beaufort to oil drilling.

Thanks again for standing with NRDC in defense of the wild Arctic, and a clean energy future.

Sincerely,

Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

 

 

The “Dirty Water Rule.”

That’s what we call President Trump’s new move to give fossil fuel giants, factory farms, and other industrial polluters the green light to pollute thousands of vital rivers, lakes, and streams with no repercussions.

Trump’s EPA just released its disastrous plan to gut the protections of the Clean Water Act that help prevent the pollution of drinking water sources for millions of Americans. It makes no scientific, legal, public health, or fiscal sense.

NRDC is prepared to fight back at all costs to stop this senseless attack on clean water, our environment, and our health.

But right now we need your help to rally a massive public outcry.

Tell the EPA to reject Trump’s disastrous Dirty Water Rule and protect our swimming and fishing spots and sources of drinking water for millions of Americans. Be one of the 100,000 activists we need to stand strong for clean water protections.

The Clean Water Act was designed to protect lakes, rivers, streams, and other waterways across the country, and hold polluters responsible if they violate its requirements.

Trump’s Dirty Water Rule will gut those critical protections, and threaten to contaminate our drinking water supplies and destroy important habitats for aquatic wildlife.

We’ve already seen enough devastating impacts from pollution and climate change on the nation’s water resources as of late: Outbreaks of harmful algae in Lake Erie that contaminated drinking water for thousands in Toledo, Ohio… losses in the Pacific salmon population in the Pacific Northwest… drought in California and across the west… and unprecedented toxic algae blooms in Florida, which have killed millions of fish, and other marine wildlife, and led to a state of emergency in the Sunshine State. Hobbling the Clean Water Act will only add to this list.

And while slashing safeguards for clean water will impact ALL Americans, low-income communities and communities of color could be hit the hardest — exacerbating inequality in communities that are already disproportionately impacted by polluted water.

We must stop this no-holds-barred attack on our clean water. Call on the EPA to reject Trump’s dangerous Dirty Water Rule immediately and help us reach our goal of 100,000 official public comments.

The Trump administration has been attacking clean water since Trump came into office, and NRDC has sued to protect it.

You can be sure that we’ll continue to fight this outrageous assault on clean water — in and out of court — and any Trump administration attack on our environment and health.

Will you join us today and demand that the EPA protect clean water for all?

Thank you for speaking out.

Sincerely,

Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

———————————————————

Mark,

The Trump administration has given the green light to oil and gas companies to use
seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, from New Jersey to Florida, to
search for fossil fuels in the sea floor. Seismic airgun testing involves
firing extremely loud and continuous blasts of compressed air–every few seconds, twenty four hours a day, for up to weeks or even months at a time–to determine whether oil and gas deposits are present.

The consequences of seismic airgun blasting could be devastating to marine wildlife.

Hundreds of thousands of ocean animals could be disturbed, maimed, or killed as a result of this shortsighted and potentially very deadly testing program. Marine
mammals like whales and dolphins are at a higher risk for harm since they rely
on hearing to communicate, reproduce, and find food.

The North Atlantic right whale,  migrates in the blast testing area.
This species is teetering on the brink of extinction with an estimated 400
individuals left in the wild.

Take action now and
tell Congress to protect the North Atlantic right whale and other marine mammals by opposing the following legislation: SEA Act (HR 3133) and SECURE Act (HR 4239), and supporting legislation such as the Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection Act (S. 1263/ HR 2158).

The impacts of expanding offshore drilling will be extremely
harmful to marine ecosystems.

Offshore drilling causes habitat destruction, ocean acidification, and oil spills,
resulting in immense loss of wildlife. Use of fossil fuels speed up climate
change and associated risks. We cannot let this administration open the door to
new offshore drilling when we have only twelve years to act against climate
change.

Email your members of Congress right now and tell them to oppose the potentially deadly seismic airgun blasting and stop the expansion of offshore drilling in the biologically rich waters of the Atlantic!

In solidarity,

Stepph Sharpe
Turtle Island Restoration Network

Dirty Policy – Dirty Money.

 

 

Full article – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46517396

Nasa says it has detected the first signs of significant melting in a swathe of glaciers in East Antarctica.

If this trend continues, it has consequences for future sea levels.

There is enough ice in the drainage basins in this sector of Antarctica to raise the height of the global oceans by 28m – if it were all to melt out.

 

 

WAV Comment – A pity those in power who could do the right thing, don’t !! – hope he can swim, or maybe not.