In a very contentious hearing last Tuesday in the U.S. Senate Natural Resources Committee, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) called out Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for her department lawyers meeting with “dark money groups that fund far left climate policies.”
“We have foreign billionaires, who are funding dark-money groups, coming to meet with your leadership, concealing it from the public, while they are filing lawsuits adverse to the department – doing it without the court’s knowledge, doing it – you – say without your knowledge, and then getting exactly what they want,” Hawley stated.
Hawley had copies of emails that were obtained by Politico’s E&E News service through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that explained how her office and representatives of the Wilderness Society set up an “off-the-books” meeting.
“In July 2021, after you (Haaland) had come to office, members of the Wilderness Society, while they’re suing the department, write to your top deputy and ask for a meeting, and keep it off of his calendar,” Hawley stated. The then Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau asked in a follow-up email, “Can we set up a meeting with these folks?”
Hawley then explained that the Wilderness Society is an organization funded in part by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, “who has routed his money through all manner of dark money groups, including Arabella [Advisors],” a known dark money network.
As an aside, American Stewards of Liberty has been the target of multiple attacks by the Arabella-funded Accounting.US group pushing the IRS to revoke our nonprofit status.
A few months after this “off-the-book” meeting between The Wilderness Society and Interior took place, the Department cancelled 225,000 acres of mineral leasing rights in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, a critical-minerals mine the administration shut down.
This is precisely what is happening across our nation. This administration continues to cancel leases, designate national monuments and wilderness areas, and utilize federal statutes to withdraw critical minerals from being mined and utilized by American industries that create wealth and stability for our nation. Because of these decisions, we are beholding to foreign nations like China for many critical minerals needs.
Apparently, this isn’t the only “corruption” exposed by Congress. The House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and other Republican lawmakers, wrote a June letter to Haaland’s department stating it has “cultivated intimate and potentially improper relationships with extreme environmental activist groups driving the Biden administration’s agenda.”
Westerman noted that Somah Haaland, the secretary’s adult daughter, had ties to the Pueblo Action Alliance, which successfully lobbied for a 20-year moratorium on drilling leases near New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Hawley ended his remarks saying: “It sounds to me like it’s the dark money billionaires who are calling the shots at the Department of Interior. And all I have to say to you, Madame Secretary, is that is a travesty.”
“The American people should be in charge, not the foreign billionaires – and the fact that you’ve let them run rampant is outrageous,” he said.
Must see video clip inside this link:
Wilderness Society Press Release on 20-year moratorium deal on the 225,000 acres:
https://www.wilderness.org/news/press-release/boundary-waters-protected-next-twenty-years
https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/lawsuit-challenges-mining-permits-near-boundary-waters-wilderness-minnesota
from the story: “Today’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the Center for Biological Diversity, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness and The Wilderness Society.”
