Trump’s pick for U.S. Interior secretary has worked for Alaska and energy industry

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt (right) visits the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC with US President Donald Trump (center), and Vice President Mike Pence (left) on January 21, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated David Bernhardt to be the next secretary of Interior, to replace Ryan Zinke.

Bernhardt was second-in-command under Zinke, and has been acting secretary since Zinke resigned amid ethics complaints.

Zinke, a former Navy seal, made for a showy frontman for the department. That was clear from Day 1, when he rode a horse to Interior headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. Zinke had a big persona, and a big cowboy hat to go with it.

Bernhardt, by contrast, is a dark-suited attorney with a sharp mind for natural resource law and policy. He previously worked as a lobbyist, representing several energy companies. He also represented the state of Alaska in 2014 in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to conduct seismic testing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Bernhardt is an enthusiastic supporter of oil development on federal lands and waters, including in the Arctic.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who chairs the House Resources Committee, says putting a former fossil-fuels lobbyist in a position to regulate his former clients is “a perfect example of everything wrong with this administration.”

When Bernhardt took the deputy secretary job, he agreed to recuse himself from matters involving more than two dozen of his former clients. That list did not include the state of Alaska, and the recusals expire by early August.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Northern Canada: Northwest Territories gov, mining company sign agreement on benefits of proposed mine, CBC News

Finland: Gold mining in northern Finland hurts reindeer, says Natural Resources Institute, Yle News

NorwayIron mines in Arctic Norway could soon re-open, The Independent Barents Observer

Russia: Large ore mine to be developed in remote Russian Arctic, The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden: Iron mine in northern Sweden to restart production, The Independent Barents Observer

United States: Mining company boosts spending to lobby U.S. government for contested Alaska project, Alaska Public Media

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media

For more news from Alaska visit Alaska Public Media.

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