It’s quite fitting that the swampiest portion of the Drain The Swamp administration* is the Department of the Interior, presided over by that famous campaign-finance wrangler, Ryan Zinke. After all, the department has responsibility for the public lands, such as they may be once these thieves and vandals get through with them. This includes the public swamplands. The latest, from The Washington Post, is quite remarkable in how swampy its swampiness truly is.

The company, Whitefish Energy, said last week that it had signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct large portions of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The contract is the biggest yet issued in the troubled relief effort…The unusual decision to instead hire a tiny for-profit company is drawing scrutiny from Congress and comes amid concerns about bankrupt Puerto Rico’s spending as it seeks to provide relief to its 3.4 million residents, the great majority of whom remain without power a month after the storm.

But both Montana and Puerto Rico have mountains, so it’s all good, right?

Whitefish officials have said that the company’s expertise in mountainous areas makes it well suited for the work and that it jumped at the chance when other firms were hesitating over concerns about payment. The company acknowledges it had only two full-time employees when Maria struck but says its business model calls for ramping up rapidly by hiring workers on short-term contracts.

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Thar’s gold in them there rubbles!

Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Mont., the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Its chief executive, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another — but only, Zinke’s office said in an email, because Whitefish is a small town where “everybody knows everybody.” One of Zinke’s sons “joined a friend who worked a summer job” at one of Techmanski’s construction sites, the email said. Whitefish said he worked as a “flagger.” Zinke’s office said he had no role in Whitefish securing the contract for work in Puerto Rico. Techmanski also said Zinke was not involved.

I’m certainly convinced. To paraphrase Lamar Parmentel from The Big Easy—Whitefish is a marvelous environment for coincidence.

Below Zinke on the departmental pillage-chain we find energy industry finger-puppet Scott Pruitt, who has many enemies. From CNN:

Pruitt's security detail is in the process of expanding by hiring a dozen more agents, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, as the number of threats against the agency leader increase. The incoming agents will grow the team that works in shifts to provide him around-the-clock protection, something unheard of for Pruitt's predecessors. Salaries alone for the full team will cost at least $2 million per year, according to figures compiled by CNN from public documents. The numbers do not include costs such as training, equipment, and travel. The spending increase comes as the Trump administration has laid out plans to cut the agency's budget by 30%, including major cuts to the agency's enforcement work and staffing as well as the elimination of some programs. Pruitt told Congress in June that the EPA "can fulfill the mission of our agency with a trimmed budget, with proper leadership and management."

So, the primary function of the Environmental Protection Agency has changed from, you know, protecting the environment to protecting its administrator. This is good to know. By the third year of his term, Pruitt may only be available by hologram, sponsored by the American Petroleum Council.

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But all is not graft and dubious coincidence, however. Back in Montana, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County is standing up against the administration*’s plans to sell off the public lands, which remain the area’s primary source of income.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana, as follows: that the Board of County Commissioners opposes any effort to claim, take over, litigate for, or sell off public lands within Anaconda-Deer Lodge County except pursuant to processes established by Congress in the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and other applicable laws, following public participation and site-based analysis of wildlife, ecological, and community implications of the proposed land transfer.

(Small though it is, the county has had its share of environmental concerns. For example, “Anaconda” was stuck onto the county’s name as an acknowledgement of the local activities of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the corporate behemoth that dominated local politics from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Because of the disfigurement of the state’s politics by the influence bought by this one company, in 1912, the state passed a law forbidding any corporate contributions in the state’s elections. This law was one of the first casualties of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize influence peddling through its Citizens United decision. The county has another, more obvious legacy from Anaconda’s glory days; 300 square miles of the southern end of Deer Lodge Valley has been an EPA Superfund site since 1983.)

There have been more than 30 such resolutions passed in the western states over the past two years. Generally, they have been the product of thriving coalitions between sportsmen and environmentalists, which is something to celebrate in this divisive age. The Anaconda-Deer Lodge resolution even warns that “a warming climate tends to accentuate the process” of the regular forest fires that are essential to the local ecosystem. This, of course, is something that Scott Pruitt is deliberately expunging from EPA publications and EPA science. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about that from the bombproof bunker where he’s working at the moment.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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