Zinke to Be Cleared of Misconduct in Utah Monument Decision

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke broke no rules and provided no special favors in his decision last year to reduce the area of the protected Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, the department’s watchdog has determined. Environmental advocates had accused Zinke of catering to the financial interests and influence of Utah state Republican House member Mike Noel, a critic of federal land use policy who owns land near the monument. he Associated Press on Monday night reported that acting Interior Department Inspector General Mary Kendall—who is also investigating Zinke on several ethics fronts—sent a letter to Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt saying her staff had found no evidence of preferential treatment in this part of the larger Trump administration decision to open more Western lands to development. “We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOI’s proposed revisions to the [monument’s] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noel’s financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries,” Kendall wrote in the summary published by the Washington Post...MORE