Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold its confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department, Katharine MacGregor. A review from government watchdog Accountable.US spotlights MacGregor’s record as a passionate ally for big oil and gas interests who served as the industry’s point person at Interior during the first Trump administration. MacGregor’s nomination follows the confirmation of fellow Trump administration parrots of the oil lobby, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“With Katharine MacGregor’s nomination to Interior, President Trump continues to build a dream team of big oil and gas shills to ravage America’s public lands, while taxpayers and our environment deal with all the fallout,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “It’s all part of the Trump plan to let oil lobbyists write their own rules and seize whatever land they please in the name of maximum profits after they made record high donations to his campaign.”
BACKGROUND: During her previous tenure as Deputy Secretary of the Interior, oil industry leaders considered MacGregor such a reliable friend that in a released audio recording, Independent Petroleum Association of America leader Dan Naatz nonchalantly stated “we’ll call Kate” as a solution to a litany of policy goals of the industry. In one glaring case, emails obtained through FOIA show that MacGregor helped expedite a “deficient” application to drill for a specific oil company. Prior to joining the first Trump administration, MacGregor worked to help advance the legislative priorities of the oil industry in the House Natural Resources Committee. At one point, she even said she was “excited” about a bill that would have allowed natural gas pipelines to be built through national parks. Since leaving the Trump administration, MacGregor has worked for NextEra, a diversified energy company with a substantial fossil fuel portfolio.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.