BLM - Enviro Lobbyist Scandal Probed
E&E Daily, a subscription-only Web news service, has broken a story regarding illegal collusion between Bureau of Land Management officials and environmental lobbyists groups:
IG investigating coordination by BLM and enviro groups, congressman says
Noelle Straub, E&E Daily reporter, Sept 20, 2008
The Interior inspector general is investigating possible illegal coordination between lobbyists for environmental groups and federal officials of the National Landscape Conservation System, Rep. Rob Bishop said yesterday.
Interior officials informed his office about the investigation into the NLCS, which is a division of the Bureau of Land Management, the Utah Republican said in a statement.
E-mails and other documents show extensive coordination between top NLCS officials and environmental lobbyists, said Bishop, the top Republican on the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee.
The main groups involved appear to be the Wilderness Society and the National Wildlife Federation, a House GOP aide said. At some point NLCS officials had weekly meetings with these and other groups, often at the Wilderness Society’s office, to coordinate lobbying strategy and messaging, the aide said.
E-mails show that NLCS officials requested environmental groups to write budget language, the aide added. E-mails also talk about coordinating lobbying efforts, setting up NLCS events, sending out draft memorandums for each other to review and preparing for congressional hearing.
The federal and advocacy officials exchanged resumes and job announcements in their respective organizations and BLM, the aide said. Travel documents are still being collected and reviewed and will be part of the investigation, the aide added.
Federal law generally prohibits federal employees from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress.
The National Landscape Conservation System is a sub-agency of the BLM. The NLCS website is [here].
The NLCS was established in 2000 by Interior Secretary Babbitt
The System contains more than 850 federally recognized units
It encompasses approximately 27 million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Managements
The NLCS has four categories of federally designated areas:
National Monuments, National Conservation Area (NCAs) and similar designations. ‘Similar designations’ includes National Recreation Areas, Cooperative Management and Protection Areas, Outstanding Natural Areas, and Forest Reserves
Wilderness. This category includes Designated Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas
Wild and Scenic Rivers
National Trails. This category includes National Historic Trails and National Scenic Trails
Those involved in the illegal collusion are not talking. From E&E Daily:
Kevin Mack, NLCS campaign director with the Wilderness Society, said he was unaware of the investigation. “I don’t know what the investigation is about, have not been called by the IG, so I can’t say anything more than that,” Mack said.
Both his groups work on public lands issues and are in contact with many people related to their work, Mack added. “I don’t know what ‘there’ is there.”
NWF spokeswoman Jennifer Jones said the group has not been contacted by the IG’s office.
Interior spokeswoman Tina Kreisher said the department had no comment at this time. An inspector general spokesman could not be reached by press time.
Congressman Bishop issued a strong statement condemning the violations:
Bishop said the Interior Department should act quickly to halt any improper activities involving advocacy groups and the NLCS. He also called on employees involved in the investigation to step aside from their positions until the inspector general finishes his work.
“The department must insist that any employee involved in violations of the anti-lobbying law step aside until the inspector general or the Justice Department has reviewed his or her conduct,” Bishop said. “Just as the employees of the royalty-in-kind program at MMS learned, we will not tolerate misconduct by public officials.”
This type of illegal collusion is exactly what has been going on the Wildland Fire Leadership Council [here] for more than two years. The WFLC has seated representatives of the Wilderness Society and the Nature Conservancy and has promulgated illegal Let It Burn policies promoted by those non-governmental lobbying groups. No minutes of WFLC meetings have been posted since last March, when WFU (wildland fire use) and AMR (appropriate management response) were foisted on federal land management agencies by the WFLC [here].
The WFLC is attempting to hide behind a Memorandum of Understanding that allegedly codifies their illegal collusion activities.
Americans For American Energy [here] has issued a press release calling for a Congressional investigation and oversight hearings on the “potential illegal coordination” between BLM officials and enviro lobbyists [here]:
Congressional Probe Of Enviro Groups Urged Over Lobbying Of Interior Department Agency
For Immediate Release: Sept. 24, 2008
Washington, D.C. — Potential illegal coordination between U.S. Interior Department officials and several national environmental groups, currently being investigated by the Interior Inspector General, should also be investigated by Congressional oversight committees, according to Americans for American Energy.
Americans for American Energy Wednesday asked U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), Chair of the House Resource Committee, and U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to convene oversight hearings on the matter.
News of the IG investigation was unveiled late last week by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), ranking Member on the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Parks and Public Lands, who said that he was informed of the investigation involving the Wilderness Society, National Wildlife Federation and possible improper contacts with the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) on September 18.
Bishop indicated in a statement that e-mails and other documents collected b the Inspector General’s office of the U.S. Interior Department show extensive coordination between environmental lobbyists and NLCS top officials.
These activities appear to include coordination of lobbying, agency requests for budget language from environmental lobbyists, setting up NLCS events, review of official memorandums, and other potentially illegal exchanges, Bishop said.
The Interior IG is also collecting and reviewing travel documents as part of the investigation, the Congressman added.
“The Inspector General needs to quickly determine how far this goes, but the Congressional oversight process must be brought into play as well,” said Greg Schnacke, President and CEO of Americans for American Energy, a non-profit grassroots energy education organization based in Denver, Colorado. “The Wilderness Society and the National Wildlife Federation spend millions of dollars pursuing an anti-American energy political agenda. The question we have is how far does this extend and does is it more extensive than simply the NLCS?”
AAE also called on Congress to shelve action on Omnibus Public Land Management Act (S. 3213), and in particular the portion of the bill directly affecting the NLCS, the “National Landscape Conservation System Act” (S. 1139).
“This investigation calls into question any action that might be taken this year on S. 3213, particularly the inclusion of the National Landscape Conservation System Act (S. 1139), until this situation is concluded. The cloud hanging over the NCLS alone should disqualify any consideration of this legislation this year. The allegations of collusion between the national environmental groups lobbying hard for this bill and the staff of the Interior agency that would be the subject of the this legislation are enough under any reasonable assessment to shelve this legislation immediately until justice takes its course,” Schnacke stated in his letter to Rahall and Bingaman.
Published reports indicate that NLCS officials met regularly with environmental groups, often at the Wilderness Society’s Washington, D.C. offices to coordinate federal lobbying strategy and messaging. Federal law generally prohibits federal employees from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress.
“It is the job of the Congress to provide oversight and investigate whenever there are such allegations of misconduct and misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Schnacke said. “If the committees refuse to conduct such oversight, it will be sending a message to the American people that it intends to turn a blind eye to such activities.”
“You can’t tell me this is an isolated incident,” added Schnacke. “The political agenda of the NWF and the Wilderness Society is too broad and touches more in the Interior Department than just the NLCS. I am sure the leadership at Interior will also be very interested whether other employees in other agencies may be a little too cozy with the Wilderness Society and the National Wildlife Federation.”
“AAE encourages the IG to get to the bottom of this immediately, and the U.S. House and Senate to investigate this as well. These investigations should begin prior to this election, given that some of these individuals may be planning to get jobs and important policy positions in the new Administration,” said Schnacke.
Special thanks to Frank DuBois and The Westerner [here] for coverage of this story.
