The Zinke effect: how the US interior department became a tool of industry

Trump's interior secretary has been remaking the agency charged with protecting public lands as an ally of big energySince his first day on the job, when he surrounded himself with a National Park Service police escort and rode through Washington DC on a white-nosed horse named Tonto, the US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has exhibited a flair for ostentation.Not long after taking office in March 2017, the new secretary started flying a special flag, adorned with the agency's bison seal, above the interior department's elegant New-Deal-era headquarters. At a cost of more than $2,000, he also commissioned commemorative coins emblazoned with his name to hand out to visitors and staff. He replaced the doors in his office to the tune of more than $130,000, and installed a hunting-themed arcade game in the department's cafeteria. Continue reading...