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<title>As Interior Turns, An eight year soap opera in which federal officials
screwed the environment, the taxpayers, and each other. By Jonathan
Thompson, High Country News, 12.22.08</title>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>As
Interior Turns<br>
An eight-year soap opera in which federal officials screwed the environment,
the taxpayers, and each other.<br>
</span></b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>From the
December 22, 2008 issue of High Country News by Jonathan Thompson</span><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><br>
<br>
</span><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There's plenty in
Washington for the new administration to clean up, but perhaps the biggest
messes can be found in one agency: the Department of Interior. Over the last
eight years — mostly between 2001 and 2005 — the agency charged
with managing millions of acres of public land has been racked by scandal.
During a veritable orgy of ethical lapses, federal coffers were deprived of oil
and gas royalties, fragile species denied protection, and industry given yet
more power to wreck public land in the name of greed. The questionable behavior
was department-wide, but three major spheres of controversy stand out: The
corruption around J. Steven Griles; the "Minerals Management Service Gone
Wild" scandals; and Julie MacDonald's enthronement of ideology over
biology. <br>
<br>
Some may dismiss the incidents as just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel.
But the patterns suggest otherwise — in every case, either ideology or
money or both were allowed to triumph over common sense. Former lobbyists and
industry executives held too many top posts, and links to property-rights and
pro-industry organizations were too strong. Interior Secretary Gale Norton was
heavily involved in ideologically hard-right causes before she entered public
service, and then went to work for the oil industry afterward. Griles was a
lobbyist, Rejane Burton the former vice president of an oil and gas exploration
company, and so on. In recent weeks, some of these same officials have
"burrowed" into — or been shuffled around —- the agency,
transformed from political appointees into career employees. That will just
make this mess harder to clean up.<br>
<br>
Here are some of the stars and other players — in As Interior Turns.<br>
<br>
Once upon a time, Jack Abramoff was a very powerful lobbyist. He could raise
money for himself (including millions of dollars in fees from his clients), and
for others (more than $100,000 for the Bush campaign). He urged his clients
— including various Western tribes —- to donate huge chunks of cash
to politicians and to political appointees' pet organizations. In exchange, he
provided enviable access to government officials. If this sounds corrupt, it's
because it was, and Abramoff finally got caught and was convicted of defrauding
Indian tribes and corrupting public officials. He brought plenty of folks down
with him, including J. Steven Griles, a top dog at Interior, lobbyists and
politicians. He never worked directly for the Bush administration (though they
seemed to be working for him, at times), but he has become the primary symbol
of the corruption by money of politics during the last eight years.<br>
<br>
J. Steven Griles was a leading man in As Interior Turns, holding the number-two
spot in the agency and ending up in bed with everyone from Jack Abramoff to the
coal and electric power industry, to (literally) Italia Federici. He first
worked for the feds in the 1980s under James Watt, at the U.S. Office of
Surface Mining. In 1995, he founded J. Steven Griles and Associates, a lobbying
group that eventually became part of National Environmental Strategies, another
lobbying group that worked for the mining and fossil fuel sectors. In
2001, he became Gale Norton's deputy. At the time, he signed onto a special
agreement that allowed him to continue being paid (about $1 million) by his
former lobbying firm, as long as he didn't meet with former clients; he did
anyway. He hung out with officials from the National Mining Association, and
pushed for looser mountaintop-removal mining standards. He met with Edison
Electric Institute folks, and tried to ease federal clean air rules on power
plants. All the fun came to an end when Griles was caught in Abramoff's sticky
web — he helped Abramoff navigate Interior on behalf of his clients. Griles
resigned in 2004, and two years later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
Though Griles is gone, his legacy remains: Mountaintop removal rules were
recently eased up by the Bush administration.<br>
<br>
Italia Federici was never a part of the Department of Interior, but her
tentacles reached into the agency in more ways than one. Federici and Griles
began a relationship in 1998, which continued in some form or another after
Griles became Norton's lieutenant. Federici then served as a liaison between Abramoff
and Griles; in return, Abramoff funneled at least $500,000 from his clients to
Federici's charity, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,
which Norton helped start in the late 1990s. Federici pleaded guilty in 2007 to
obstructing the investigation into Jack Abramoff.<br>
<br>
Sue Ellen Wooldridge was Norton's deputy chief of staff and then counselor
before being appointed Interior solicitor in 2004. Then in 2005 she became U.S.
assistant attorney in charge of environment and natural resources. She also
secretly dated Griles while both were working for the feds (they later got
married). In 2005, Griles, Wooldridge and ConocoPhillips executive Don Duncan
bought a $1 million beach house together. Wooldridge later gave ConocoPhillips
extra time to pay millions of dollars in fines. She resigned under the cloud of
scandal in 2007.<br>
<br>
Matthew McKeown was yet another private-property-rights ideologue who moved
into Interior in 2001, at the beginning of the Bush reign. As one of Interior's
top legal eagles, he played a large — if unseen — role in getting
the Bush agenda implemented on the ground. (He later moved to the Justice
Department along with Wooldridge.) He had a primary role in the Healthy Forests
Initiative, publicly bashed the Endangered Species Act, negotiated settlements
that gutted the Northwest forest plan, and negotiated an agreement between
Interior and the state of Utah making it easier for the state to control roads
that cross federal land. As Bush prepared to leave office, McKeown was converted
from a political appointee to a civil service post, meaning he'll remain in
Interior under Obama.<br>
<br>
Rejane "Johnnie" Burton was the director of the Minerals
Management Services, the agency responsible for collecting billions of dollars
of royalty payments from oil companies that operate on federal land. She
oversaw MMS during a time when staff members were cavorting with one another
and oil industry officials, and as energy companies skirted some $1 billion in
royalties that should have gone into federal coffers. She resigned in 2007.<br>
<br>
Donald Howard, Jimmy Mayberry and Milton Dial were all MMS officials during the
Bush administration, and they all pleaded guilty. Howard accepted a hunting
trip from an oil industry contractor, and Mayberry and Dial violated
conflict-of-interest laws.<br>
<br>
Greg Smith directed MMS's Royalty in Kind Program, which accepts oil and gas
from energy companies in lieu of royalties for drilling on public land. The
program was expanded in the late 1990s at industry's behest, after the straight
cash royalty program was tightened up to prevent chronic under-collection from
oil companies. The program is set up to have very little oversight. (The
Government Accountability Office characterized it as operating under an
"honors system.") Which was good for Smith, because he apparently had
other things on his mind. A federal investigation revealed this year that
during his tenure, Smith took drugs with and coerced subordinates into having
sex with him. On one occasion, he pestered an employee for cocaine, settling
finally for methamphetamines, which he snorted off a toaster oven. Smith also
accepted golf outings, drinks and meals from employees of Shell, Chevron and
Gary Williams Energy Corp. Meanwhile, he was moonlighting as a salesman for Geomatrix,
an environmental services company that sometimes works for oil companies. From
his MMS office, he made sales pitches to various energy companies — some
of which he was supposed to be collecting royalties from — on behalf of
Geomatrix, according to federal investigators.<br>
<br>
Smith wasn't the only one with dirty hands in the Royalty in Kind branch of the
Minerals Management Service. Federal investigators found that at least 1/3 of
the staff were hanging out with and accepting gifts from oil industry folks
between 2002 and 2006. At least one RIK staffer had a one-night stand with a
Shell employee. During that same time, according to the GAO, the MMS could not
account for the cost or benefits of the RIK program. Apparently staff was so
busy taking ski trips and going to parties on the oil industry's dime that they
forgot to keep track of whether those same oil companies were paying adequate
royalties. In spite of these problems, Interior has tried to expand the
program.<br>
<br>
By the time she resigned in 2007, Julie MacDonald had become one of the most
notorious of the many notorious Interior officials. MacDonald first came to
Interior in 2002 as an advisor. Then, in 2004, Norton promoted her to the
powerful post of deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. In
just a few years, she did more to tinker with her own scientists' findings, and
thereby derail protections on endangered species, than anyone in the history of
Interior. MacDonald's subordinates suffered under her — she
"bullied, insulted and harassed the professional staff," according to
a federal investigative report — and she did the same to wildlife. The
arroyo toad, white-tailed prairie dog, Preble's jumping mouse, Canada lynx,
southwestern willow flycatcher and other species lost protection or critical
habitat thanks to MacDonald. (The agency later reconsidered some of MacDonald's
decisions.) She was also in cahoots with the conservative Pacific Legal
Foundation and the California Farm Bureau, to whom she disclosed confidential
info while at Interior.<br>
<br>
E-mails reveal that MacDonald was working closely with Steven Quarles, a
prominent lobbyist for forest, mining, agricultural and development interests,
and former Interior official. One message from Quarles to MacDonald requested a
meeting to "secure easy ‘yeses' to outrageous requests."
Quarles continues to work with the Crowell and Moring lobbying firm, with
clients such as the Village at Wolf Creek, Plum Creek, Anglogold and Rio Tinto.<br>
<br>
A Government Accountability Office investigator testified to Congress that
other Interior officials should have been examined as part of the MacDonald
investigation, including Craig Manson, Brian Waidmann, Todd Willens and Randal
Bowman. Though the three were never actually accused of wrongdoing, some did
their part aboveboard to stick it to endangered species. Willens was once
senior staff advisor to Richard Pombo, the notorious California congressman who
attempted to gut the Endangered Species Act. While at Interior, he pushed to
remove the Florida manatee and other species from endangered species
protection. Willens left Interior in 2008 and — you don't say!? —
became a lobbyist.<br>
<br>
In spite of the fact that the most salacious scandals happened on her watch,
former Interior Secretary Gale Norton has stayed above the fray. Bush appointed
Norton, a one-time libertarian, protegee of James Watt and member of various
right-wing think tanks, in 2001. During her years in Interior, the BLM issued
drilling permits at a record pace. Norton favored drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, voided critical habitat on millions of acres, increased the
number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, and so on and so forth. She resigned in
2006, just as the Abramoff/Griles connections were coming to light. Abramoff
never directly rubbed off on her, but there are many links: Federici, for
example, tried to arrange a 2001 meeting between Norton and Lovelin Poncho
(Abramoff client and Coushatta tribal chairman). Eventually, the two met at a
Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy fund-raising dinner that
Abramoff helped coordinate. After leaving Interior, Norton went to work for
Shell, and Dirk Kempthorne took her place. Most of the dirtiest scandals
stopped after she left, but Interior has continued its questionable approach to
the environment, stripping protection from endangered species, opening up 1.9
million acres to oil shale development, pushing through last-minute rules that
favor industry, trying to lease thousands of acres for energy development --
even right next to national parks -- and blocking a congressional attempt to
stop uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon.</span></b><span style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><br>
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