Zinke Leaves Behind 2 Years of Destructive Legacy

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced his resignation late last week, saying he will leave the Trump administration at the end of the year. The increasingly cornered Zinke has been at the center of more than a dozen investigations much like his former colleague Scott Pruitt had been at the EPA. In fact the Interior Department’s Inspector General referred one investigation to the Justice Department in October.

Trump tweeted Zinke’s imminent departure after months of reports that the White House was pushing for his resignation. The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of his private resignation letter cited that Zinke blamed his departure on, “vicious and politically motivated attacks.” His resignation does not absolve him of the legal probes he faces.

Zinke is expected to be replaced by David Bernhardt, a man that the New York Times describes as, “a former oil lobbyist who has played a central role in enacting President Trump’s agenda of rolling back conservation measures and opening up public lands to drilling and mining.”

Noah Greenwald, Director of the Endangered Species Program at the Center for Biological Diversity.