For Immediate Release, December 15, 2018

Contact: Mary K. Reinhart, (602) 320-7309, mkreinhart@biologicaldiversity.org

Statement on Ryan Zinke's Pending Resignation as Interior Secretary

WASHINGTON— Embattled Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will resign by the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced today on Twitter. Zinke is under a cloud of internal ethics investigations and a criminal probe.

“Zinke will go down as the worst Interior secretary in history,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “His slash-and-burn approach was absolutely destructive for public lands and wildlife. Allowing David Bernhardt to continue to call the shots will still be just as ugly. Different people, same appetite for greed and profit.”

Bernhardt, Interior’s deputy director, has his own troubling history.