https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Bernhardt
"Legal work and lobbyingEdit
Bernhardt served as DOI Solicitor until 2009.[5]That year he rejoined the Colorado-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.[8]Bernhardt became a shareholder in the firm[1]and chairman[5] of the firm's natural resources law practice.[8] Bernhardt's clients includedHalliburton, Cobalt International Energy,Samson Resources, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.[13]
Through Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Bernhardt represented San Joaquin Valley’sWestlands Water District in "a lawsuit that sought to undo court-imposed protections for endangered salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta."[14] Berhardt also represented entities such as the proposed Rosemont Copper open pit mine in Arizona.[1]Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck was involved in representing other mining, oil, and extractive industries, as well as projects such as the Cadiz, Inc. water project in the Mojave Desert around Cadiz, California.[15] Cadiz later refuted that Bernhardt had lobbied directly for Cadiz, although "some environmentalists" said they suspected Bernhardt's involvement when the DOI changed its views to be positive towards the project in March 2017.[1]
In 2011, Bernhardt filed a lawsuit for Westlands that "sought to force the feds to make good on a commitment to build a multibillion-dollar system to dispose of the poisoned water" resulting from toxic irrigation in the Westlands district. Later, through the 2017 bill HR 1769, Westlands agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for forgiven debt and long-term access to water from Central Valley Project facilities. In April 2017, the House Natural Resources Committee approved the settlement, but rejected an amendment that would have "barred former Westlands officials or lobbyists — meaning Bernhardt — from working on the drainage issue for five years."[14]
DOI transition teamEdit
Until the end of 2016, he remained an attorney and lobbyist for the San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District.[14] In November 2016, Bernhardt de-listed himself as a lobbyist, to avoid "running afoul of the new president's ban on lobbyists joining his administration."[15] While remaining a lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, after November 2016 Bernhardt was briefly in charge of the Interior Department transition team for President Donald Trump.[5] In that role, he was in charge of overseeing staffing in the DOI along with Devin Nunes.[15] In recent years, he served on the board of directors for the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries,[8] resigning prior to January 2017.[16] By April 2017, he was on a $20,000-a-month retainer for Westlands.[15]
Until resigning by early 2017, he was on the board of the Center for Environmental Science Accuracy and Reliability.[17]
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Other groups criticized Bernhardt as a "high-powered lobbyist" with conflict-of-interestconcerns, due to his firm's work on regulation issues with the DOI[5] and his history of representing oil companies and agricultural interests.[1] The appointment was met with strong criticism from conservationists andfishing interests in California,[14][15] where Bernhardt had worked as a lobbyist and attorney.[14] Also criticizing the choice,[8] the Western Values Project sued the Interior Department to obtain documents about Bernhardt's tenure for the department under George Bush.[5] The head of the Center for Biological Diversity said that Bernhardt had "always sided with big business at the expense of our most imperiled wildlife. If confirmed he'd be a disaster for allendangered species."[1] ".....
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