This article was originally published by HuffPost and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
David Bernhardt has been confirmed as the 53rd secretary of the Interior Department.
The Senate voted 56-41, mostly along party lines, to confirm the Colorado native and former oil and gas lobbyist, who has served as the Interior Department’s acting chief since Secretary Ryan Zinkestepped down in January amid mounting ethics scandals.
Three Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), as well as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), joined Republicans in voting for the nominee.
As deputy secretary, Bernhardt played a key, behind-the-scenes role in gutting environmental regulations and advancing the Trump administration’s fossil fuel-centric “energy dominance” agenda. He brings to the top post a slew of potential conflicts of interests stemming from his years as an energy lobbyist, experience that has earned him labels like the “ultimate D.C. swamp creature.” He’s come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks after two New York Times articles showed he intervened to block a scientific report on the threat certain pesticides pose to endangered species and continued to lobby for a former client months after signing papers promising to cease such activity.
Prior to Bernhardt’s confirmation, several Senate Democrats wrote a letter calling for the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate allegations that he suppressed science by the Fish and Wildlife Service. And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a vocal critic, requested Monday that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia “thoroughly investigate potential civil and criminal violations” of lobbying rules by Bernhardt and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the law firm where for eight years he lobbied on behalf of oil, gas, mining and agricultural interests.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor Wednesday to urge colleagues to vote against Bernhardt, describing him as a “hardened enemy of climate science” who has “made a career of harming the environment, subverting environmental protections and helping polluters sidestep federal regulation.”
“President Trump, for all his talk of draining the swamp, wants to add yet another Washington swamp creature lobbyist to his Cabinet,” Schumer said.
Despite Democrats having plenty of new fodder, Bernhardt sailed through his confirmation hearing earlier this month, where protesters were spotted donning bright green swamp creature masks. He won the support of two key Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee: Manchin, the committee’s ranking member, and Heinrich, who in 2017 voted against confirming Bernhardt as deputy secretary.
Manchin said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of Thursday’s vote that Bernhardt is “clearly qualified” for the role, noting his experience serving as a top Interior official under former President George W. Bush. He added that during recent meetings he told Bernhardt he plans to hold him and the department to the “highest ethical standards.”
Bernhardt is among several Interior officials who have been accused of violating Trump’s ethics pledge, which bars political appointees in the executive branch from participating in certain matters involving former employers or clients for two years. He maintains he has complied with all ethics rules and, in a February memo to staff, touted his efforts to improve the agency’s “badly neglected” ethics infrastructure.
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