Watchdog Raises Ethics Concerns Over National Parks Director Collecting Honorary Degree
- August 15, 2024
Tristian Justice, The Federalist
A government watchdog published documents exposing a conflict of interest between the director of the National Park Service (NPS) and a university on the West Coast the agency has contracted with.
On Thursday, the nonprofit group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) released records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing NPS Director Charles Sams was given the green light by ethics officials within the Department of the Interior to accept an honorary degree from Oregon’s Portland State University. Sams was granted approval by the agency ethics bureau in June last year despite the university being “party to numerous cooperative agreements with the [National Park Service]” and “likely [having] other matters, actions, or decisions pending before the Department.”
The Department of the Interior’s Ethics Office argued that “the Director’s acceptance of the honorary degree would not cause a reasonable person to question the Director’s impartiality in a matter affecting PSU.”
The language used to justify the award from a partner university is similar to the wording deployed by the secretary of the interior to unilaterally waive ethics complaints related to her decision over an oil and gas moratorium in New Mexico. Last year, Secretary Deb Haaland prohibited new oil and gas leases within a 10-mile radius around the Chaco Cultural National Historical Park, despite local opposition to the regulations. The 10-mile buffer around the American Indian historical site offers protections for existing leases but eliminates opportunities for new drilling for the next two decades.
“When the Biden-Harris administration promised to be the most ethical in history, the American public had every right to expect that meant that the bar would be set extremely high,” said Michael Chamberlain, the director of PPT. “Even under normal circumstances, ‘very little involvement’ or ‘potential involvement’ where ethics concerns arise should raise red flags. But lowering the bar for ethics seems to be the order of the day at Secretary Deb Haaland’s Department of the Interior.”