Yesterday, President Donald Trump nominated Michael Chamberlain to be director of the Office of Government Ethics, the federal government’s top ethics regulator. Chamberlain, who served in the first Trump administration, is the director of Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), a hyper-partisan organization that targeted Interior department officials with spurious ethics complaints during the Biden administration, including a lawsuit demanding records from then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s wedding to investigate alleged “influence peddling.”
Protect the Public’s Trust misrepresented itself in public records requests targeting Biden cabinet members. In a May 2021 request to the Department of Energy, PPT called itself “a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with supporters and members of the public who seek a transparent, ethical, and impartial government.” But PPT never filed the IRS form that’s required of 501(c)(3) groups.
“The nomination of a Trump loyalist with no regard for a functioning ethics system is especially disappointing when there is blatant corruption occurring at the Interior department right under Doug Burgum’s nose,” Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss said in a statement. “If he’s confirmed, Chamberlain must immediately take actions to address Karen Budd-Falen’s work on grazing, mining, and wolf issues. Failure to do so will prove what we already know—he serves to protect the Trump administration’s corruption, not the public’s trust.”
Senator Mike Lee votes against bipartisan housing bill
Senator Mike Lee voted against the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act this week, exposing the hollowness of his failed attempt to sell off public lands in the name of affordable housing last summer. Lee is one of just five senators who voted against the bill, which passed both chambers with overwhelming support and now awaits President Trump’s signature. In his statement about his vote, Lee did not mention public lands, instead pinning the affordable housing crisis on “illegal aliens” and calling for more “mass deportations.”
Quick hits
Utah’s lawsuit to overturn national monument boundaries revived by appeals court
Salt Lake Tribune | National Parks Traveler | KUNC | E&E News
Forest advocates use Congress’ public-land loophole to sue over a timber sale
Outdoor Life | More Than Just Parks | E&E News
Interior dept internal memo orders staff not to reveal deaths in national parks
Washington Post | Wes Siler’s Newsletter
Nevada public lands $1 billion short for deferred maintenance needs
Colorado approves penalties against oil and gas operators in data falsification scandal
Utah officials warn of ‘totally unprecedented’ water shortages as towns run dry
Opinions: The tragic absurdity of the Reflecting Pool fiasco
New York Times | Washington Post
Indigenous cultural practices are a climate solution, report finds
Quote of the day
They’ve been warned for a long time you’re letting the genie out of the bottle and it cuts a million different ways.”
—Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, on abuse of the Congressional Review Act, E&E News
Picture This
This week we celebrate Pollinator Week at Devils Tower National Monument. Like the columnar jointing of Bear Lodge, honeycomb is a hexagonal shape that provides strength to the hive. The behavior of honeybees teaches valuable lessons about resilience and demonstrates the power of community in overcoming adversity. We could all follow the lead of the bees, their work ethic, and their contributions to the colony’s well being. NPS Archives Photo.
Featured image: The office of Protect the Public’s Trust on H Street NE in Washington, DC, via Google Maps