New Report Reveals How the Department of the Interior Undermines Transparency
By
| July 11, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 11, 2024
CONTACT: Caitlin Gallagher, cgallagher@standtogether.org
ANCHORAGE, AK — Today, Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP Foundation) released a report revealing the Interior Department’s disturbing pattern of undermining transparency and accountability by withholding and delaying release of public records regarding the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 258 in Alaska from members of Congress, FOIA requesters, and the public.
AFP Foundation’s review of thousands of emails and documents obtained over a two-year period through Freedom of Information requests and litigation reveals efforts to cover up how the agency unlawfully undermines and cancels congressionally mandated lease sales.
- Political appointees at Interior slow-walked the release of the Cook Inlet Decision Memorandum, despite the fact that the same memos are posted on the Interior website for offshore wind lease sales and the memo was accidentally posted online previously.
- Emails between the Interior Office of the Secretary FOIA Office and an employee within the Office of the Secretary show that responsive documents were collected as early as November 2022 in response to AFP Foundation’s May 2022 FOIA request regarding Cook Inlet, but no records were provided until February 2024, months after AFP Foundation filed a lawsuit in October 2023 to compel production.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation Director of Investigations Kevin Schmidt released the following statement:
The Interior Department’s actions on the Cook Inlet lease sale show how a federal agency can abuse discretionary authority, bypass statutory requirements, and avoid transparency with impunity. Policymakers need to get serious about reining in broad-based agency authority that allows the executive branch to effectively rewrite law and undermine congressional intent, and then refocus on delivering solutions that promote a bottom-up approach to energy abundance.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation-Alaska State Director Bethany Marcum released the following statement:
No state has felt the pain of the Biden Administration’s war on domestic energy and mineral production more acutely than Alaska. Along with its unlawful and abusive actions in ANWR and the NPR-A, Interior decided on the outcome it wanted—the cancellation or prevention of oil and gas development in the Cook Inlet—and then fabricated a legal and policy justification for it after the fact. Alaskans deserve better.
Documents Obtained by AFP Foundation
Department of the Interior Office of the Secretary
- FOIA Request
- FOIA Complaint
- February 2024
- March 2024
- April 2024
- May 2024
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
