Ryan Zinke and Public Use

Pete and Luke discuss Ryan Zinke, the scandal-ridden Secretary of the Interior. What does "public land for public use" mean? What is an "America First" energy policy? They also briefly revisit last week's topic, Matthew Whitaker, the newly appointed acting Attorney General.

Intro clip: Dogs at Dept of Interior, Fox New (May. 05, 2017).

Whitaker Redux

1. Shawn Boburg, "Whitaker’s unusual path to Justice Department included owning day-care center, trailer maker and concrete supplier," Washington Post (November 14, 2018).
   
   "In 2004, when he started a five-year stint as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Iowa, Whitaker cited a personal-injury case and a dispute involving a dry-cleaning business as some of his most consequential legal work."
2. John Yoo, "Whitaker’s Appointment Is Unconstitutional," The Atlantic (Nov. 13, 2018).
3. Rational Security, "The 'Cocoon of Bitterness and Resentment' Edition (Nov. 15, 2018).

Ryan Zinke, or I can't remember which clown we're talking about this week…

• Media Matters, "A Timeline of scandals and ethical shortfalls at Ryan Zinke's Interior Department."
• Timothy L. O'Brien, "Ryan Zinke and the Murky Interior of Trumpworld," Bloomberg (Nov. 1, 2018).
• Elliott D. Woods, "Ryan Zinke Is Trump's Attack Dog on the Environment," Outside (Dec 4, 2017).

• Jimmy Tobias, "The Zinke effect," The Guardian (Nov 12, 2018).
  "Williams dismissively characterized the approach taken by the administration of Barack Obama: “Anything you want to do on public land, they want to see what the carbon footprint is and what the social cost is.” Under Zinke, “we’re not looking at this”, he said. The new administration was instead focused on “economic impacts”."
• Democracy in America, "Ryan Zinke's messy week," The Economist (Oct 19, 2018).
  "In a more normal administration, Mr Zinke’s misadventures might have got him fired. In the current administration, they barely make headlines."

What does "public lands will once again be for public use" mean? What is an "America First" energy policy?

 

• Conrad Black, How Trump Stood up the the Environmentalist Left, National Review (Nov. 14, 2018). (A response was published in NR by Theodore Kupfer.)
• Shawn Regan, "A Monumental Mistake," National Review (Feb. 14, 2017).
  - Bears Ears "defenders in this case have expressed contempt for Utah’s desire to choose its own land policies."
  - "If government is the things we do together, then we should govern together. And if monument designations are truly good public policy, they shouldn’t require eleventh-hour executive actions that thwart the legislative process to become reality."
• Orrin G. Hatch, "It’s time to undo the federal land grab of Bears Ears," Washington Post (April 25, 2017).
  "[Obama] ignored the best interests of Utah and cast aside the will of the people — all in favor of a unilateral approach meant to satisfy the demands of far-left interest groups."
  => Hatch does not explain why expanding protections causes harm other than to say that it was against the wishes of Utah's politicians.
• Elizabeth Kolbert, "The The Damage Done by Trump’s Department of the Interior," The New Yorker (Jan. 22, 2018).
  “One of Zinke’s first acts, after dismounting from Tonto, was to overturn a moratorium on new leases for coal mines on public land.”
• Glenn Beck (Dec 5, 2017)
  “The Antiquities Act was supposed to protect archaeological sites from souvenir hunters,” explained Glenn, adding, “Once the land is declared a national monument, it’s closed. And I mean closed to ranching, mining, and development — but also to you. Don’t you dare pitch a tent there. This is not a park.”
  "...untapped natural resources" in protected federal land ?

Outro clip: "I Heart Huckabees."

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