DC scandal linked to Baca

A news release on Monday from the San Luis Valley Water Protection Coalition linked Department of Interior Attorney Thomas Graf to an ongoing scandal involving former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald who resigned in 2006 following allegations that she improperly influenced more than a dozen Endangered Species Act decisions. Similar allegations are now being made against Graf in connection with proposed oil and gas drilling in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The water coalition has alleged that Graf exercised heavy-handed policy similar to MacDonald’s style in overseeing development of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Environmental Assessment of Lexam Explorations, Inc., proposal to drill for natural gas in the Baca refuge. The coalition asserts that documents acquired through Freedom of Information Act requests confirmed that Graf allowed oil and gas industry lawyers to review and comment on internal drafts of the assessment. A report released earlier this month by the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General cast Graf in an even worse light when it stated that he “aided and abetted” Julie MacDonald. In the new report, Graf, self-described as MacDonald’s “eyes and ears,” allegedly interfered on numerous occasions with high-level scientific decision-making for the Greater Sage Grouse. He was described in the study as having a “remarkable lack of recollection [that] leaves one to speculate whether he was doing MacDonald’s bidding or was a rogue actor simply emulating her policy style.”....