Reyes and Noel moving closer to taking posts with the Trump administration?

The worm is turning for two Utahns who could have important jobs in the Donald Trump Administration – Attorney General Sean Reyes and state Rep. Mike Noel. Last week Reyes flew off in a private plane to points unknown (Washington, D.C.?) and Noel went to Denver for a meeting of Mountain States Legal Foundation – who supports Noel’s appointment to director of the Bureau of Land Management. Noel recently told UtahPolicy that he believes he has a “good chance” of being appointed BLM director. If that happens, and as director Noel is given his reins by Trump and incoming Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, there could be big changes in Utah, where the BLM controls thousands of acres of land. Noel is actually a retiree of the BLM, where he worked for 20 years; he knows the agency intimately and says one of his first actions would be to eliminate the bureau’s law enforcement personnel and armed officers. The Foundation, made up of public land users, like ranchers, miners and oil producers, takes on a variety of legal challengers – and back’s Noel’s appointment, he said. The group has produced some public lands leaders in the past, including one former head of the BLM and the Interior Department. “They asked me to come to speak to them, and I did,” said Noel. The BLM director’s appointment won’t be made until Zinke is officially approved by the Senate, which should happen this week, Noel added. Zinke could come to Utah within several weeks, as he has promised various Utah officials that the Beehive State will be one of his first visits...more