Ryan Zinke Is Opening Up Public Lands. Just Not at Home.
When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was a state senator from this idyllic mountain town, he drove a Prius, sported a beard and pushed President Barack Obama to make clean energy a priority.
Today, the beard and Prius are gone, and Mr. Zinke has emerged as a leading figure, along with Scott Pruitt of the Environmental Protection Agency, in the environmental rollbacks that have endeared President Trump to the fossil fuel industry and outraged conservationists.
In the last year, Mr. Zinke has torn up Obama-era rules related to oil, gas and mineral extraction and overseen the largest reduction of federal land protection in the nation’s history, including an effort to slash the size of Bears Ears National Monument.
But here in Montana, where support for drilling in certain beloved areas can be a career killer, Mr. Zinke has struck a different note. And as he faces allegations that he has violated travel and ethics rules, an examination of his Interior Department record shows that his pro-development bent has not always applied to his home state, where he is viewed as a fiercely ambitious candidate for future office.
In the past year, Mr. Zinke has halted the sale of oil and gas leases near Yellowstone National Park, opposed gold mining in that area, and urged the president to protect one national monument, Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks, while creating another, the Badger-Two Medicine, just miles from his childhood home.
Extract from the Original article by JULIE TURKEWITZ , in NYT US section .
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Kinda the opposite of a NIMBY...
"his pro-development bent has not always applied to his home state".
That's actually the very definition of NIMBY. He is tearing up restrictions on oil and gas drilling and mining in everyone else's States but his own. When it comes to raping the environment he says "Everywhere else is fine, but Not In My Back Yard."
"Thanks for that PAC check."
As a Principled Republican TM, Zinke is held to the very highest standards of... speech...
He's a regular prince among thieves.
Author called off topic {SP}