An Interior Department employee who says he was reassigned because he warned about threats posed by climate change resigned in a letter that accuses Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke of poor leadership, wasting taxpayer money, and ignoring clear evidence of the damage caused by global warming. “My voice will be part of the American chorus calling for your resignation so that someone loyal to the interests of all Americans, not just special interests, can take your job,” wrote Joel Clement in the letter, shared with Huffington Post.
After Zinke took office, Clement was among dozens of senior Interior employees who were reassigned to new jobs. In his case, Clement went from director of the Office of Policy Analysis to a post as a senior advisor at the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, effectively an auditor in an agency that collects and disburses royalties paid by oil and gas companies working on federal land.
“I blew the whistle on the Trump administration because I believe you unlawfully retaliated against me for disclosing the perilous impacts of climate change upon Alaska Native communities and for working to get them out of harm’s way,” wrote Clement. An Interior spokesman told Huffington Post that the shuffle of civil servants was part of Trump’s reorganization of the government “to better serve the taxpayer and the department’s operations.” Last week, Zinke said 30 percent of Interior Department employees were not loyal to him and Trump.