Biden Admin’s Revolving Door With Left-Wing Green Groups Continues as Environmental Official Lands Cushy Gig With Anti-Fossil Fuel Radicals
- December 4, 2024
Thomas Catenacci, Free Beacon
Bureau of Land Management director Tracy Stone-Manning has already lined up her post-Biden administration job: a cushy six-figure gig leading the Wilderness Society, an influential Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit.
Stone-Manning was confirmed to lead the Interior Department subagency in September 2021 and has since implemented a wide range of climate-related policies rolling back resource development on public lands and, in many cases, outright shuttering fossil fuel production. Stone-Manning’s actions at the Bureau of Land Management closely aligned with the Wilderness Society’s priorities.
The announcement came just days after the Bureau of Land Management finalized a broad ban on coal leasing in a region spanning northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana that produces more than 40 percent of the nation’s coal.
Stone-Manning’s new gig also raises questions about her relationship with the Wilderness Society and other aligned interests while she was leading the Bureau of Land Management.
“Contrary to the claims of the Biden-Harris administration, it looks as though the revolving door between federal service and powerful special interests is spinning faster than ever,” said Michael Chamberlain, the director of ethics watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust.
“Ms. Stone-Manning’s move to lead the Wilderness Society is a shining example of the close relationship between Biden appointees and powerful special interests and of the federal government’s revolving door,” he added.
Chamberlain also noted Stone-Manning’s role in an alleged act of eco-terror, an incident that emerged as a major point of contention during her 2021 Senate confirmation. In July 2021, a retired federal investigator confirmed he investigated Stone-Manning’s role in a late 1980s operation to spike trees in Idaho but that her lawyer negotiated immunity for her at the time.
“Tracy Stone-Manning appeared to misrepresent important aspects of her involvement in a dangerous eco-terrorism incident,” Chamberlain said. “But that didn’t stop her from being confirmed and subsequently obtaining a golden ticket to the highest echelons of the environmental movement.”