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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMary Fallin, front-runner for the Secretary of the Interior position, Is As Pro-Oil As They Come
Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, a vice-chair of the Trump transition team whose aggressive pro-oil and anti-tax policies have made her an industry darling, has emerged as a top contender to be our country's next Secretary of the Interior. If she is formally nominated in the coming days, Fallin could soon lead a federal department responsible for protecting endangered species, handling Native American affairs, controlling the U.S. Geological Survey, administering lucrative oil and gas leasing programs, and managing more than 440 million acres of public land, including the National Park system.
Should Fallin take the reins at Interior, she will have broad power to reshape policies that will impact the future of the United States' most beloved landscapes. Her priorities will undoubtedly be very different than those of current Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who has used her time in the post to promote the outdoor recreation economy, offset energy development with large-scale land conservation projects, and preserve new national monuments. Jewell has also sought to mitigate carbon pollution by placing a moratorium on new public lands coal leases. Fallin, its safe to say, will see things differently.
Johnson Bridgwater, the director of the Sierra Club's Oklahoma chapter, calls Fallin's potential nomination "problematic."
"She has basically been an absentee governor on all important environmental issues in our state during her term," he says, specifically highlighting her slow response to the oil-industry-induced earthquakes that have rocked the state as well as her decision to dissolve the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission. Fallin, he adds, has starved the state's environmental enforcement agencies of funding while at the same time prioritizing the desires of fossil fuel developers.
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