Groups seek investigation, ethics review after oil and gas industry hires former BLM official

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Groups seek investigation over industry hire

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Several environmental groups are crying foul over the recent hire of a former Bureau of Land Management official as the president of New Mexico’s leading oil and natural gas industry group.

The groups sent a letter Wednesday to BLM Director Bob Abbey and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking for an investigation into whether the industry improperly influenced Steve Henke during his time as head of the BLM’s Farmington field office in northwestern New Mexico. The area is home to the San Juan Basin, one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields.

The groups also want an independent ethics review of Henke’s hiring by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and they are requesting that he be restricted in his new position from interacting with BLM offices in New Mexico for two years.

“We cannot help but view Mr. Henke’s sudden hiring by NMOGA as an example of the cozy relationship between industry and government officials that Interior Secretary Salazar has committed to confronting,” said the letter, which also was sent to members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation.

Salazar said in June that he supports a two-year ban on government regulators going to work for the oil and gas industry. He told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that a lifetime ban might be appropriate for some employees, depending on how high they are in the agency.

The revolving door problem has the attention of President Barack Obama, lawmakers and watchdog groups in the wake of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Obama has promised to end the “cozy relationship” between the oil industry and federal regulators.

Henke did not immediately return messages seeking comment about the groups’ letter.

BLM spokesman Hans Stuart said Wednesday that Henke had asked one of the agency’s ethics officers if he could apply for the industry job.

“We did an investigation very carefully and we found that it was OK for him to apply for the job and take it because we don’t regulate the association,” Stuart said. “There’s a difference between the association and say a company, and we don’t have any contractual agreements or arrangements with NMOGA.”

The Washington-based watchdog group Project on Government Oversight also criticized Henke’s transition to industry last week and called for the revolving door between the Interior Department and industry to be closed.

In response, Henke told the Farmington Daily-Times that his work over a 34-year career with BLM was always fair and balanced.

Deborah Seligman, interim president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said Wednesday that the association doesn’t see a conflict of interest with Henke’s hiring.

“Whether it’s the Bureau of Land Management, whether it’s the state of New Mexico, the Oil Conservation Division or the state Land Office, I think what you try to do is find a balance and I think that’s been very true of both federal and state (agencies) within New Mexico. We’ve worked together to find a balance. That has included the environmental community, the oil and gas industry as well as the bureaucracy,” she said.

Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that signed on to the letter, called Henke’s hiring “absurd” and said Salazar and Abbey need to restore the public’s trust in the BLM.

“The guy didn’t even have a chance to take a breath after he left BLM. It was like just stepping across the street or something. It’s unreal,” Nichols said.

Stuart said the agency doesn’t believe the industry had any improper influence over Henke during his time at BLM.

Henke retired from BLM in May after nine years as district manager of the Farmington office. He will start his new duties with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association on Aug. 2.

Nichols said the groups are also concerned because Henke has played an important role in litigation and recent settlement negotiations regarding the Farmington resource management plan and is privy to confidential information that could benefit the oil and gas industry. The groups should have access to that same information if Henke shares it with the industry, Nichols said.

“It just raises all sorts of ethical issues,” he said.

Other groups signing on to the letter include the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Earthworks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project, Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Drilling Santa Fe.

Environmentalists and the BLM had been locked in a bitter disagreement over the management plan since it was developed in 2003. Critics claimed the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws in developing the plan for drilling thousands of wells over 20 years in the 16,000-square-mile San Juan Basin, which straddles the New Mexico-Colorado border.

A federal court ruled in favor of the agency in 2008, and the groups countered with an appeal. That appeal was dismissed in April after both sides reached a compromise that, in part, calls for the BLM to consider impacts to cultural, wildlife and other resources when reviewing new lease sales.