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<p>WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has offered the position of interior secretary to Representative Ryan Zinke, Republican of Montana and a former Navy SEAL commander, according to two officials familiar with Mr. Trump’s decision.</p> <p>As head of the agency that oversees energy exploration on the nation’s public lands and waters, Mr. Zinke would be charged with carrying out the aggressive pro-drilling agenda championed by Mr. Trump on the campaign trail.</p>

In what is being touted as further diversification of the president-elect administration, Donald Trump is expected to name Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to lead the Interior Department, according to reports. McMorris Rodgers gets the nod ahead of Sarah Palin and Harold Hamm.The candidates mentioned for the Interior Secretary were...  * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee* Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor* Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil* Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc* Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon...

According to reports, President-elect Donald Trump will tap Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers to serve as United States Secretary of the Interior. McMorris Rodgers currently represents Washington's 5th Congressional district. Before serving in the U.S. congress, McMorris Rodgers was a member of the Washington House of Representatives, serving as minority leader. McMorris Rodgers is currently the highest ranking Republican woman in congress.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is emerging as President-elect Donald Trump's leading contender for interior secretary, three people close to Trump's transition team told POLITICO. An advocate of oil and gas development, Fallin signed a bill last year that would prevent Oklahoma cites from enacting bans on drilling. Fallin is a staunch critic of the Obama administration's climate change regulations for power plants. She signed an executive order last year saying that her state will not comply with the rules.

The Interior Department manages the nation’s public lands and waters. Here is the "short list" and I would love to see Jan Brewer get the spot, but honestly just to slap the face of the MSM my choice would be Sarah Palin just to get the goat of the libtards so we can drill baby drill. Who is your choice? Jan Brewer Former Arizona governor Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner Harold G. Hamm Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company Forrest Lucas President of Lucas Oil Products, which manufactures automotive lubricants, additives and greases Sarah Palin...

"Drill, baby, drill!” During her bid for vice president in 2008, that was Sarah Palin's crowd-pleasing chant promoting her energy policy. Now the pithy catchphrase – and the former Alaska governor herself – could make a comeback. News reports say Palin is on President-elect Donald Trump's short list to head the Interior Department. As secretary of the interior, she'd be in charge of overseeing oil drilling, uranium mining and other energy extraction on 500 million acres of public land, including iconic national parks like the Grand Canyon. The pro-mining policies Trump and Palin could be expected to bring to Interior...

On the day before President-elect Donald Trump came to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Obama, a list of the names of possible Trump cabinet choices and other key jobs was leaked to reporters. This being Washington and all, the list of names is undoubtedly a way to vet these choices in the court of public opinion before spending any political capital defending them. And, revealing the list also creates a sort of buzz around the campaign.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is seriously discussing the possibility of giving former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a cabinet position, Politico reported Wednesday. The Trump campaign is floating the idea of tapping the former Alaskan governor as Trump’s interior secretary. Palin has made no secret about her interest in holding a position in a Trump administration.

In the sadistic era of fraudulent Hope and Change, inspectors general inside the federal government have been kicked, neutered and starved of the authority and information they need to do their jobs. It's transparently clear: President Obama loathes and fears independent watchdogs. Accountability is an empty talking point without whistleblower protection and investigative autonomy. That is why Capitol Hill must do everything in its power to stop the White House war on the public's ombudsmen. Federal inspector generals across dozens of agencies are begging lawmakers to grant them access to public records as guaranteed by the 1978 Inspector General Act....

A federal judge in Wyoming has issued an injunction against new Department of Interior regulations that tighten controls over hydraulic fracturing on federal lands. The move grants some of relief to producers who would have confronted higher costs at a time when oil prices are already hitting their profits, curbing activity, and reducing headcounts....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) met rancher Cliven Bundy on Monday, along with several dozen supporters and land rights activists during a presidential campaign swing through Nevada. The Associated Press reported the two met at a stop northeast of Las Vegas, where Paul fielded questions on public land control, a major issue in the state, where much land is owned by the federal government. "I think almost all land use issues and animal issues, endangered species issues, ought to be handled at the state level," Paul told the AP. "I think that the government shouldn't interfere with state decisions, so if...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy will be held accountable for the federal land grazing fees and penalties he owes, a top federal official said. Bundy became a national figure in April 2014 when he and scores of supporters got into an armed standoff with federal law enforcement officers over his cattle’s years of alleged unpaid grazing on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department includes the BLM, says Bundy will eventually have to answer for what he owes the federal government, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. “Cliven Bundy has had multiple court orders to remove his...

The U.S. Forest Service is finalizing plans to fine photographers who shoot on federal wild lands without a permit. Under the measure, still photography and commercial filming in Congress-designated wilderness areas would require a permit, and shoots would also have to be approved and meet certain criteria like not advertising any product or service and being educational. Permits would cost up to $1,500, even if someone was taking photos or video with their phone, and fines for shooting without a permit could be as high as $1,000, according to the Oregonian. A spokesman for the Forest Service did not immediately...

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from a popular oyster farm in Northern California that is facing closure. The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place lower court rulings against Drakes Bay Oyster Co. The company operates in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declined to renew its lease when it expired in 2012. Salazar said the waters of Drakes Estero should be returned to wilderness status.

The Senate confirmed four of President Obama’s executive and judicial nominees Thursday. Theodore Chuang and George Hazel will serve as U.S. district judges for Maryland. The Senate voted 53-42 on Chuang’s nomination and 95-0 on Hazel’s. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he couldn’t support Chuang’s nomination because he helped the Obama administration “stonewall” Congress on the investigation of the death of four Americans at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. “I can’t support his nomination because of the central role Mr. Chuang played in the administration’s efforts to stonewall an investigation into the situation in Benghazi,”...

In one of Alaska’s most remote outposts, where a thousand hardy souls make their homes, the Obama administration has put the fate of birds and bears above the lives of people, blocking construction of an 11-mile gravel trail connecting a tiny fishing hamlet to a life-saving airport. King Cove has a clinic, but no hospital or doctor. Residents must fly 600 miles to Anchorage, via Cold Bay’s World War II airstrip, for most medical procedures including serious trauma cases and childbirth. Frequent gale-force winds and thick fog often delay or jeopardize medevac flights. According to local Aleutian elders, 19 people...

President Obama has declined an invitation to speak at next month’s ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. The event, slated for Nov. 19 at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, instead will feature Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and renowned historian James McPherson as the keynote speakers, the Gettysburg National Military Park said in a press release. “President Obama will not attend and the Secretary of Interior will represent the administration,” the park pointed out in the first paragraph of its press release. It’s unclear why Mr. Obama, a noted admirer of President Lincoln, declined the...

As promised, the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. appealed to an expanded panel of a federal appeals court in San Francisco today to allow it to keep operating at Point Reyes National Seashore. The oyster farm and owner Kevin Lunny asked an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision in which a smaller panel of the court ruled against the company by a 2 to 1 vote in September. In that ruling, the smaller panel upheld a federal trial judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the oyster harvesting to continue...

A new website launched by the National Park Service gives Alaska teachers a new tool to engage students in classroom and place-based learning. The website nps.gov/teachers is a one-stop shop for curriculum-based lesson plans, traveling trunks, maps, activities, distance learning and other resources. Alaska’s national park-based curriculum and other teacher resources are substantial and varied, and include: • Distance Learning: Glacier Bay National Park’s “Visiting Glacier Bay” provides an opportunity for a virtual visit to this Southeast Alaska gem. 

 • Curriculum: Denali National Park’s “Denali Rocks!” focuses on geology and provides eight lessons matched to Alaska State Standards for...

The "new energy future" will require the federal government to encourage "the right kinds of behavior," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a clean energy summit in Nevada on Tuesday. "When you are getting into a new energy future, you really benefit from having the support of states -- and the federal government encouraging the right kinds of behavior and encouraging those incentives (for solar panel installation), she said. Jewell mentioned the "right" kind of behavior twice in her speech, without specifically saying what it means. But she did give some hints.