Courtney Bourgoin, courtney.bourgoin@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC— The Sierra Club secured over 14,437 documents from the Department of the Interior through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), including call logs, meetings and email communications that are now available for the public. Find and search the documents online here.
Included in the lowlights are:
-
Unchecked cozying up to industry: Endless pages of meetings between corporate polluters, industry interest groups and Department of the Interior officials—especially oil, gas and mining lobbies.
-
U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Director Aurelia Skipwith’s long list of meetups includes coordination with groups pushing the Black Rock mining project in Montana and Newmont Goldcorp mining project in Nevada. Skipwith’s meetings also include several meetings with the oil and gas industry on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling, the Atlantic Coast pipeline and more.
-
A lengthy series of communications between Bernhardt’s staff and his former client Westlands Water District on the controversial California water diversion order.
-
Endangered Species rollbacks in the middle of an extinction crisis: Several documented meetings and correspondence between USFWS and big agricultural interests pushing for species protections rollbacks— including the gray wolf, sage grouse, bald eagles, grizzly bears and more.
-
Several email chains with former Assistant Secretary Joe Balash—who pushed to significantly expand fossil fuel drilling in Alaska under the Trump administration, just before he left to work for the oil industry looking to develop projects in the state.
-
Bizzare meetings between USFWS personnel and groups supporting exotic animal trade and trophy hunting in the United States.
-
And much more on Bernhardt’s culture of corruption at the Interior Department. Sierra Club's FOIA litigation continues and more documents are due from Interior this summer.
**THE FULL SET OF DOCUMENTS IN SEARCHABLE FORM IS LOCATED ONLINE HERE**
In response, Lena Moffitt, Director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, released the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s hostility toward public lands, wildlife and bedrock environmental safeguards is on full display. These tens of thousands of pages reveal the deeply-embedded culture of corruption and desire to pad industry profits at the expense of endangered species, water, and Tribal and public lands. It’s time for Bernhardt to cut off these conflicts of interest, and listen to people over corporate polluters.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.