Bernhardt-tied lobbying firm played both sides in oil market crash

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Oil drilling, Kansas Corporation Commission

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic was coupled with an oil market crash from which the industry is still recovering. In March, overproduction in Saudi Arabia and Russia combined with declining demand caused oil prices to plummet. New reporting from HuffPost finds that Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the lobbying firm that previously employed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, played both sides during the market crash, working for Saudi Arabia as well as American companies. Jayson O’Neill, project director at Western Values Project, said it is "surprising that neither the President nor the [Interior] Secretary seems to mind that his old lobby shop’s efforts are derailing Trump’s energy dominance fantasy by allowing excess crude to be dumped into domestic markets, further depressing prices.”

Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has paid Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck $6.7 million to represent its interests in Washington, including oil and gas-related lobbying throughout the market crash early this year. The law firm also represents American oil and gas companies and trade organizations, a sector of their business that has boomed since Bernhardt became Interior Secretary. Our analysis of lobbying disclosure forms finds that, since Bernhardt’s nomination to become Deputy Interior Secretary in 2017, 36 clients have paid the firm a total of $11.96 million to lobby the Interior Department.

National parks: the heart of landscape conservation

Today, the Center for Western Priorities and National Parks Conservation Association are hosting a virtual event at 12:00pm MT/2:00pm ET that will explore the impacts of climate change in national parks, how parks can serve as conservation hubs to connect larger landscapes, and how the bold goal of protecting 30 percent of America by 2030 can help to protect these special places. In conjunction with the event, we released a new storymap highlighting how national parks are the heart of landscape conservation.

                            Quick hits
                        

                            Quote of the day
                        

Trump’s Interior Department took a similarly generous view toward the fifty-three rollbacks requested or supported by corporations and industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute. The Center for Western Priorities found that, by 2019, Trump’s Interior Department had made thirty-six of those wishes come true, and were plugging away at the rest.”

—Lena Moffitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, The Progressive

                            Picture this
                        

@USFWSRefuges

#LiveYourWild on a #WildlifeRefuge this fall. What’s your favorite bird haven this migration season? National wildlife refuges only.
This pic is from Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Photo: Ian Shive/@USFWS