‘In the dark of night’: Trump’s Interior chief snuck Murkowski an 11th-hour win

Just days before leaving office, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ordered federal officials to use a risky legal strategy to advance a controversial road project through a wildlife refuge in Alaska, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO and Type Investigations — a move that if implemented, could erode public land protections across the state. The January 15 Bernhardt memo to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move forward with the permitting of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska stunned critics who have opposed the project for more than two decades. A long-standing priority for the Alaska delegation — and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in particular — the 19-mile Izembek road, which was proposed to connect the village of King Cove with an airport in nearby Cold Bay, would cut through federally designated wilderness lands in the refuge. Supporters of the project say the road would provide residents, the majority of whom are Alaska Natives, with access to medical care in the event of an emergency; opponents argue that it would do irreparable harm to a globally recognized wetland ecosystem that provides critical habitat to thousands of migratory bird species and is really designed to benefit the commercial seafood industry. King Cove, on the remote edge of the Alaskan Peninsula, is home to one of the state’s largest canneries... Two earlier attempts by the Trump administration to orchestrate a land exchange in order to build the road were rejected by the courts, largely because they failed to properly address a 2013 Interior Department finding that the project would irreversibly damage the refuge and was not in the public interest. Bernhardt’s memo was an 11th hour bid to sidestep the courts by declaring the village of King Cove an “inholding” under federal law. Such a designation applies to private or state lands that are surrounded by conservation units such as refuges or parks — making them inaccessible by any other means. But King Cove, a town of just over 1,000 people, has a small airport and harbor and accommodates a large seasonal work force every year...If granted, inholding status would give FWS the authority to issue a right of way permit to the state of Alaska and Village of King Cove, which submitted their application to the agency in late October. Bernhardt’s memo instructed the FWS to approve the designation despite internal questions raised by the agency. If this interpretation of the law were to be upheld by the department, it would make it easier for the state or private landowners to apply for permits to build roads through protected conservation systems, even those designated as wilderness areas...MORE

Does anyone else find this an odd pairing? Murkowski voted to impeach Trump and then a Trump Cabinet member gives her a "win"?? And now we find that Murkowski is #2 on Trump's hit list. Something is definitely awry here.