DuBois column - Elections count, will Zinke survive and Trump on fire

Elections count, will Zinke survive and Trump on fire

Grimness under Grijalva

Elections do make a difference.

How would you like to have the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the former Chair of the Congressional Environment Task Force with a 100 percent voting record according to the Sierra Club, as the new Chairman of the House Resources Committee? That’s the Committee with jurisdiction over livestock grazing, wilderness, national monuments, endangered species and other land use activities of the Forest Service, BLM, USFWS and other entities of the Interior department. Well that’s what you are going to get with Raul Grijalva.

The Center for Biological Diversity says Grivalva has “championed efforts to protect wilderness areas, protect endangered species and advance the National Parks Service Centennial Initiative and ensure oversight of the operations of national parks, forests, and public lands systems. Most recently, he worked to protect the Grand Canyon from the threat of expanded uranium mining, advance ecological restoration on federal lands, and address the need for a budget fix for wildland fire-suppression funding. Grijalva has provided environmental leadership in Congress through his participation as co-chair of the Congressional National Landscape Conservation System and as chair of the Environment Task Force from 2003 to 2006. He has demonstrated a strong commitment to improving environmental policies.”

Grijalva just voted against the “Manage Our Wolves Act” saying on the House floor, “The bill before us today, H.R. 6784, is a piece of legislation we have seen time and time again to undermine wolf populations in the United States, but this would deliver an even more devastating blow to the continued recovery of gray wolves across the lower 48.” Grijalva continued, “Congress should not be making decisions on which species to list or delist. What we need to be doing is properly funding the Fish and Wildlife Service to implement measures to strengthen ESA and protect species and their habitats from permanent extinction, given the fact that we are facing an ongoing extinction crisis”.  

Grijalva recently signed on to an amicus brief challenging the President’s authority to diminish the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments. About the brief, Grijalva said, “"President Trump and his enablers don't seem to care what laws stand in the way of their anti-environmental agenda, and they need to be stopped here and now.”

About Trumps attempts to change the ways the Endangered Species Act is administered, Grijalva called the proposals "a favor to industry". He stated the Trump administration "doesn’t seem to know any other way to handle the environment" than "as an obstacle to industry profits".

None of this environmental championship is new for Grijalva.

Prior to being elected to Congress, Grijalva served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors where he was generally depicted as the prime mover behind the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, which is a county “program for planned land-use, and biodiversity conservation.”

To show just how far he will go for the environmental cause, in 2015, as ranking member of the House Resources Committee, Grijalva sent a letter to seven scientists who questioned the evidence of man-made global warming, demanding to know what funding they received from oil and gas companies, “as well as copies of all emails concerning the content of their congressional testimony.” A University of Colorado Professor responded that he had already testified to the committee he had received no funding from fossil fuel interests, and called the letter a politically motivated "'witch-hunt”. The executive director of the American Meteorological Society told the Congressman his action "sends a chilling message to all academic researchers," and "impinges on the free pursuit of ideas that is central to the concept of academic freedom.”

Grijalva has already announced he intends to bring Secretary of Interior Zinke before the Committee to testify on a Montana land deal that may have benefitted Zinke’s family foundation and on other environmental decisions made at the department. 

You can see what we are in for. Investigations and more wilderness, national monuments and other restrictive land use designations, all of which cause harm to federal lands ranchers.

Zinke’s future

With the midterm elections now behind us, there is much speculation about changes in Trump’s Cabinet. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is already gone. Invariably, Zinke’s name pops up as one of the five most likely to depart, citing his numerous ethical conduct investigations. Politico has reported that Zinke is exploring other opportunities for employment and has even discussed being a consultant and commentator for Fox News.

Zinke denies this, saying the numerous investigations are “vicious attacks”, that he loves his current job and President Trump is behind him “100%”.  The Interior Department’s Inspector General has referred one of Zinke’s actions to the Department of Justice for investigation, and we’ll probably have to wait to see the progress or outcome of that before knowing of Zinke’s fate. Trump will, though, want as scandal-free Cabinet as possible going in to 2020.

Trump on fire

The horrible fires in California have killed at least 88 people with 203 people still on the unaccounted for list. The town of Paradise is gone with over 14,000 homes destroyed in the 120,000 acre Camp Fire.

In the midst of this President Trump tweeted, “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor.  Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests.”

Thumbs up for Trump. I never thought I would live long enough to hear a President say that.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column first appeared in the December editions of the NM Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest