A Fox Guarding the Henhouse at the Interior Department?

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2019

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

The new head of the Department of the Interior has close ties to industry and a penchant for relaxing environmental regulations. He’s also the subject of an ethics investigation. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt represents a new phase in the Trump administration: the shift from a cabinet of flashy, venal outsiders to savvy, ideological insiders. Guest: Lance Williams, senior reporter for Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lans, are you there?
0:06.2	I'm here.
0:07.2	Is this Mary?
0:08.2	It is.
0:09.2	It's so nice to talk to you.
0:10.5	I called up Lance Williams at the Center for Investigative Reporting because I wanted
0:14.5	to ask about the first time he'd heard this name, David Bernhardt.
0:19.6	Turns out it was a couple years ago.
0:21.8	It was a voicemail from a guy I've known a long time around water issues in California
0:27.9	and it really was, you've got to call me.
0:30.8	You've got to look at these emails we have.
0:33.2	They're really interesting.
0:34.6	They concern this guy is about to be the number two man at Interior.
0:39.0	David Bernhardt was a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry, for Agri Business, too.
0:43.8	He was about to become the seconding command at the Department of the Interior.
0:47.3	And a source was giving Lance these emails exchanged by business executives, legislators,
0:53.0	and Bernhardt.
0:54.0	And these emails, they were revealing.
0:57.7	He had told the Senate he had ceased lobbying, but the emails showed that he was continuing
1:03.1	to work for these guys for months after the date where he said he had stopped writing
1:08.6	parts of a California water bill that the house passed back in 16.
1:15.3	It was just a great glimpse into how environmental policies and water development policies get
	...

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