House Republicans investigate influence of ‘extreme environmental’ groups on Interior Department

President Joe Biden has been courting the support of environmentalists throughout his time in the White House, and federal agencies have been engaged in rulemaking favorable to left-wing causes. This includes the pause on liquefied natural gas export permits, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency's EV mandates, power plant rules and methane regulations.

Some Republican lawmakers are now asking how much environmental groups have been consulted when developing these rules, where these groups get their funding, and if their relationships with federal agencies breached ethical or legal lines.

Influential groups

Republicans on a House Natural Resources subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday that examined the degree to which “extreme environmental activist groups” are influencing policy at the Department of the Interior.

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had invited representatives from two environmental groups who were accused of being engaged in “improper relationships” with the DOI — the Wilderness Society and Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA) — but both declined to testify.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., explained that the issue of these groups’ influence is the “dark money” influence they receive from unfriendly foreign sources like China.

“We now know that China provides funding for many radical environmental groups, such as Code Pink, for the purpose of stopping America's natural resources development and weakening our energy sector security,” Gosar explained.

He recounted two DOI policies that he said were crafted in consultation with environmental organizations under what he called ethically questionable circumstances — the cancelation of mineral leases in northeastern Minnesota and the withdrawal of 330,000 acres around Chaco Canyon National Historic Park.

In the case of Chaco Canyon, Gosar said, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was involved with the PAA, an environmentalist group with ties to communist organizations. The group had advocated for the protection of the lands around Chaco Canyon, and Haaland had maintained close ties with the group while serving as secretary of the department, the Arizona Republican said.

“In this case, Secretary Hill undoubtedly should have recused herself to resolve a potential conflict of interest,” Gosar said.

In the case of the Twin Metals Mine, a copper, nickel and cobalt mine in Minnesota, the federal government had reinstated mineral leases for the mine in 2018. In 2020, Gosar explained, various environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society, sued the federal agencies involved with the permits for the mine. Officials with the DOI, Gosar said, met with the lobbyists from the Wilderness Society, in an “off the books meeting.”

Gosar said that the lobbyists were also coordinating with the DOI lawyers on legal and policy pathways with regards to mining in northeastern Minnesota. Then, in 2022, Haaland canceled the mineral leases and withdrew 225,000 acres of land in the same area from any mineral exploration and development.

Political theater

Ranking member Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., called the hearing a “stage for political theater” and “another partisan attack on public servants in the Department of the Interior.” Stansbury argued that, under the Trump administration, the influence of dark money at the DIO was much more prevalent. She referred to the Mazars report, which reportedly showed that former President Donald Trump received $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments while he was president.

“So if we want to talk about influence peddling and criminal behavior, let's talk about the former president and the culture of influence that he brought not only to the White House, but to the Department of Interior under his tenure,” Stansbury said.

Stansbury also referred to allegations from 2008 in which employees of the Interior Department were, according to an Interior Department's inspector general's office report, to have accepted gifts and participated in cocaine- and marijuana-fueled parties.

“Yet here we find ourselves today in a hearing where my colleagues are trying to manufacture scandal tying Secretary Haaland to environmental groups— for what? Doing her job? Setting aside tribal sacred sites? conserving ecosystems? protecting public lands? all things that fall under the mandate of the Department of the Interior?” Stansbury said.

Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, described the radical nature of the PAA, including organizing a protest at DOI headquarters in 2021, which turned violent. Deb Haaland’s daughter Somah, who was employed by the PAA as a media organizer, posted Instagram photos of the protest, Walter said.

He also recounted that the group issued a statement following the death of George Floyd, whose death set off the summer Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. The statement spelled “America” as “Amerikkka” and claimed that law enforcement was descended directly from slave patrols to control African and indigenous people on stolen land.

“This isn't idealism. It's nihilism,” Walter said.

Ethics considerations

Richard Painter, professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School, testified that the DOI, owing to its control over so much land in the U.S., has been a source of corruption since the 1920s Teapot Dome Scandal.

Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, said the problem of corruption at the DOI wasn’t lobbying the DOI in accordance with federal laws and the First Amendment, but with illegal actions. He said it’s possible that environmental groups will seek access to the DOI through illegal means, but he said regardless of the industry, the same rules should apply.

“I would have to say that worrying about environmental groups taking over the Interior Department would be somewhat analogous to worrying about pacifists taking over the Department of Defense. Perhaps it will happen someday, but that’s not where we are now,” Painter said.

Painter argued that foreign billionaires investing in mining activities in Minnesota, which threatened to pollute the state’s groundwater, were more of a threat than the environmentalists. In response to questions from Sansbury about the allegations of corruption in the DOI under the Trump administration, Painter said that what’s needed to remedy the problem was to tighten up ethics rules with respect to interactions with previous employers.

“Whether those previous employers are in the oil and gas industry or environmental groups — even though the vast majority of the corruption has been from the industry side — previous employers have had far more influence on federal agencies than other people,” Painter said.

Gosar said that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) developed its offshore leasing program, including its whale-protection requirements, in consultation with the Natural Resources Defence Council. Gosar asked Tyler O’Neil, author and managing editor of The Daily Signal, if the oil and gas industry enjoyed that much influence over BOEM’s policies.

“You’re joking, right?” O’Neil replied. “We’ve seen where the access is in the Biden administration. It’s all of these radical left-wing groups funded by dark money that have a bone to pick against the oil and gas industry overall.”

Gosar noted that Haaland will be testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday in a hearing concerning the DOI’s fiscal year 2025 budget request.

“I hope she comes prepared to explain these seeming conflicts of interest and their effect on her decision making to the American people,” Gosar said.