NW coal exports back on the table under Trump
fondness for hunting and fishing on public lands, apparently shared with one of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s sons, seems to have been behind the sudden emergence last week of dark-horse candidate Ryan Zinke as top choice to head the Department of the Interior.
Zinke, a first-term Republican Congressman from Montana and former commander of SEAL Team 6, didn’t appear to be on anyone’s radar until last week. A late boost by Donald Trump, Jr., seems to have upended the President-elect’s initial choice of Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
Zinke has called himself a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, but critics dispute this claim, citing his support for energy development on public lands. That enthusiasm for oil and gas drilling and coal mining puts him squarely in the middle of an ongoing struggle between energy-dependent communities in the Interior West and those on the coast that have resisted the export of fossil fuels. That conflict is particularly acute among Native American tribes.
Republicans in red states like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming (as well as regions such as Eastern Washington) are ready to cheer an Interior Secretary who will push oil and gas development on federal lands.
http://crosscut.com/2016/12/trumps-interior-pick-stoke-energy-export-fights/
= new reply since forum marked as read
