{"id":643787,"date":"2013-02-25T14:56:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T19:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.instituteforenergyresearch.org\/?p=16235"},"modified":"2013-02-25T14:56:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T19:56:35","slug":"interior-top-ten-questions-for-obama-nominee-sally-jewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/643787","title":{"rendered":"INTERIOR: Top Ten Questions for Obama Nominee Sally Jewell"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama recently nominated Sally Jewell to replace Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior. As the head of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Jewell showed that she can grow a company, and now she is faced with an opportunity to grow the American economy through responsible stewardship of our nation’s vast energy resources. In the past, Jewell has argued\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0more regulations and\u00a0against<\/em>\u00a0resource development on federal lands. Her record necessitates rigorous scrutiny by the United States Senate. \u00a0IER offers the following ten questions as a sampling of the sorts of questions that Sally Jewell should answer before the American people before she is allowed a vote for confirmation.<\/p>\n

10<\/strong>.\u00a0 Sally Jewell has served on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) since 2004.\u00a0 During her tenure on the board,\u00a0the NPCA has been a litigious nuisance<\/a>\u00a0to the federal government, suing for hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars while spending more than $300,000 on lobbying in 2012 alone.\u00a0 Does Jewell believe that this so-called \u201csue and settle\u201d practice, which gives taxpayer money to groups like the NPCA in order to limitthe general public\u2019s access to federal lands, is an appropriate way for the NPCA to influence public policy?<\/p>\n

9<\/strong>. \u00a0During Jewell\u2019s tenure, the NPCA sued the Army Corps of Engineers\u00a0regarding hydraulic fracturing (fracking)<\/a>.\u00a0 An NPCA press release about the 2011 lawsuit quoted an environmental advocate who said that hydraulic fracturing was a \u201crisky industrial activity that has already caused documented environmental and human health impacts,\u201d adding, \u201cNo one\u2019s drinking water should be sacrificed in the rush to pursue exploitation of methane gas deposits that have existed for millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last 60 years, hydraulic fracturing has been employed safely in more than 1.2 million wells without a single confirmed case of groundwater contamination, despite recent efforts by some federal regulators whose power and budgets would benefit from creating a straw man that would be used to justify stricter rules. Does Jewell believe that hydraulic fracturing threatens America\u2019s vital water resources, warranting the restriction of this technology that has created thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in economic growth, and put America on the road to becoming the\u00a0world\u2019s top oil producer by 2020<\/a>?<\/p>\n

8<\/strong>.\u00a0 In its\u00a02010 annual report<\/a>, the NPCA noted that it filed lawsuits stopping the construction of eight new coal plants.\u00a0 The report boasted that the effort was aimed at stopping \u201cairborne chemicals.\u201d\u00a0 Given that every criteria pollutant in the Clean Air Act has seen\u00a0dramatic reduction since the 1970\u2019s<\/a>, does Jewell still think economic growth in the form of new power plants should be discouraged? \u00a0What role do North America\u2019s vast coal resources — \u00a0sufficient to provide enough electricity for the next 500 years \u2013 play in the administration\u2019s\u00a0\u201call of the above\u201d energy strategy<\/a>?<\/p>\n

7<\/strong>.\u00a0 At a 2007 talk at the University of Montana, Jewell noted that she wanted to see legislation and regulation from government to \u201chelp companies make the right decisions<\/a>\u201d regarding the environment, which sounds like a threat.\u00a0 Under Jewell\u2019s leadership, REI has a goal of becoming \u201cclimate neutral\u201d by 2020.\u00a0 Does Jewell think that carbon neutrality within the \u00a0next seven years is the \u201cright\u201d decision for all U.S. companies and, if so, how does she plan to lead the Department of Interior to \u201chelp\u201d companies make that decision?<\/p>\n

6<\/strong>.\u00a0 After working for\u00a0three years at Mobil Oil<\/a>, Jewell became a petroleum engineer for Rainer Bank in the early 1980s.\u00a0 Jewell stayed in the banking sector until leaving for REI in 2000.\u00a0 In 2009,\u00a0Jewell said<\/a>\u00a0of climate change, \u201cYou can\u2019t be a company that is relying on a clean environment and be part of the problem, polluting the environment.\u201d\u00a0 If companies that produce carbon-based energy are part of the problem, does that mean Jewell was part of the problem for a significant portion of her career?<\/p>\n

What efforts has REI made to curtail its sales of refined petroleum products \u2013 from mountain bikes to yoga mats, sleeping bags, hiking boots, and virtually every other item on its sales floor?\u00a0 What about its travel programs, which\u00a0tout exotic faraway places such as the Annapurna Adventure Trek<\/a>, and necessitate enormous fossil energy consumption just to travel there?\u00a0 If so, how does she reconcile her demand that others not profit from carbon-based energy when both her own professional career and her company\u2019s profits have done just that?<\/p>\n

5<\/strong>.\u00a0 When\u00a0asked in 2009<\/a>\u00a0if REI lobbies the government for environmental causes, Jewell said, \u201cI would not use the term lobbying because we are not really lobbyists, but we do educate.\u201d\u00a0 According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which collates public records data,\u00a0REI spent<\/a>\u00a0$610,000 on lobbying between 2009 and 2012, with $250,000 spent on lobbying in 2012.\u00a0 Does Jewell care to reconsider her statement \u201cwe are not really lobbyists\u201d?<\/p>\n

In 2010, President Obama noted in his State of the Union address that America faces a \u201cdeficit of trust\u201d that required \u201caction on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists.\u201d Earlier, he had pledged that lobbyists wouldn\u2019t \u201cfind a job\u201d in his administration. How does Sally Jewell negotiate her administration of REI\u2019s lobbying efforts with her appointment to a top cabinet office, given the president\u2019s views?<\/p>\n

4<\/strong>.\u00a0 Jewell has said that\u00a0one of the five focus areas of REI\u2019s leadership<\/a>\u00a0is \u201c[g]lobal climate change.\u201d\u00a0 Advocating a carbon tax,\u00a0she said<\/a>, \u201cI know tax is a dirty word, but if we were paying a carbon tax that accounted for our impact on greenhouse gases, that would in fact change our consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Jewell think that a carbon tax in the United States would significantly affect climate change? After all, unilateral carbon dioxide emission reductions in the United States would only lead to negligible reduction in global temperatures (using assumptions based on IPCC\u2019s Assessment Reports<\/a>, if the U.S. as a whole stopped emitting all carbon dioxide emissions today, and the impact on projected global temperature rise would be a reduction, of approximately 0.08\u00b0C by the year 2050 and 0.17\u00b0C by the year 2100). \u00a0Does Jewell think that the government should intervene to stop leisure and recreational activities that involve carbon emissions or consumption?<\/p>\n

3<\/strong>.\u00a0 Jewell has argued strongly against resource development on federal lands, noting in\u00a0one interview<\/a>, \u201cMany of the lands that are forests would have been developed with houses today if not for the Greenway Initiative [a local environmentalist effort] . . . .\u00a0 Every intersection could have had gas stations and fast food establishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setting aside that the local zoning effort referred to by Ms. Jewell has no correlation with national forests, which are supposed to be used for natural resources for the benefit of citizens but which cannot be sold for gas stations or fast food establishments, should the personal aesthetics of a corporate leader affect government decision making any more than those of any other citizen? \u00a0Now that Ms. Jewell is being asked to administer those lands belonging to all other citizens, how does she intend to balance her own well-documented views with the energy and other resource needs of the American people? With economic growth weak and the poorest Americans struggling with wage stagnation, would it be such a bad thing to open more federal lands for resource development to balance conservation with an increase in small business growth?<\/p>\n

2<\/strong>.\u00a0 At the federal level,\u00a0oil and gas production on federal lands is declining<\/a>\u00a0even while it surges on private lands.\u00a0 Meanwhile, under Ken Salazar,\u00a0the Department of the Interior denied<\/a>\u00a01.6 million acres of federal land for shale development, but approved using federal land for 35 renewable projects.<\/p>\n

An IER study recently found that opening more federal lands for resource exploration could lead to a\u00a0$14.4 trillion increase<\/a>\u00a0in economic activity over the next thirty seven years.\u00a0 Given the persistently high unemployment rate the U.S. currently faces, will Jewell support expanding resource exploration on federal lands?\u00a0 If not, why not?<\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. \u00a0REI has a stake in hindering multiple-uses of federal lands, or at least it appears to, in that the company appears to take the position that lands should be used only for those activities they profit from, including recreation and leisure. This many help explain\u00a0REI\u2019s $610,000 in lobbying<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 If confirmed to become the Secretary of the Interior, what assurances can Jewell give us that she will fairly weigh the competing \u201cmultiple uses\u201d as is required by many of the laws governing federal lands and not favor the outdoor recreation industry? For example, does Jewell think there is too much energy development on federal lands? Is leasing less than 6 percent of onshore lands and less than 2 percent of offshore lands for energy production too much?<\/p>\n

President Obama says that he is \u201cproud of the fact<\/a>\u201d that oil and natural gas production is increasing. Since 96 percent of the increase, according to CRS<\/a>\u00a0is from non-federal lands, what will Jewell do to make the President even prouder by actually increasing energy production on federal lands?<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama recently nominated Sally Jewell to replace Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior. As the head of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Jewell showed that she can grow a company, and now she is faced with an opportunity to grow the American economy through responsible stewardship of our nation’s vast energy resources. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}