Considering the general caliber of Donald Trump’s appointments, selecting James Reilly to run the U.S. Geological Survey seems like a stunning moment of competence. Reilly isn’t just a former astronaut, he’s also a petroleum geologist with a Ph.D. in geology and experience as both a research scientist and an exploration geologist. He also logged more than 800 hours in space on three separate missions. That he’s also worked on the board of for-profit universities and most of his exploration work involved oil and gas is only the sort of thing someone might expect in finding a candidate acceptable to Trump. So … surprisingly good call.
But the agency Reilly has been tapped to run happens to be a part of the Department of the Interior, meaning that Reilly’s new boss is Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. And Zinke seems to feel like the best use of the USGS, like everything else, is to squeeze it for a personal advantage—to the extent that one of the scientists at the USGS felt compelled to leave.
In his resignation letter, obtained by Mother Jones, Hitzman said he was leaving the USGS because the agency had agreed to provide Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke with data from the Alaska energy assessment “several days in advance of the information’s public release, in contradiction of my interpretation of USGS fundamental science policy.”
A second USGS scientist followed Hitzman out the door. Why would Zinke want a preview of the information about to be released? In addition to some questionable business connections, Zinke has also said that the Interior Department should partner with oil companies.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says his agency should be a partner with oil and gas companies that seek to drill on public land and that long regulatory reviews with an uncertain outcome are “un-American.”
In his confirmation hearing, Reilly got some questions about leaking scientific reports to Zinke in advance of their public release … and unfortunately, he was all for it.
Reilly added that he didn’t know the details surrounding the departures of Hitzman and Meinert, but he suggested that it might sometimes be appropriate for USGS scientists to share sensitive data with officials leading the Interior Department. “In my other occupations up to this point, I always felt like I had a responsibility to deliver information to my leadership, particularly if it had an impact on how the leadership is supposed to respond to it,” he said.
But in the case of this kind of information—publicly-funded research that often involves determining the potential reserves in large undeveloped areas or on tracts of public land—having even a few hours preview can mean a significant first-mover advantage in making plans, securing leases, or predicting markets. If nothing else, these are reports whose release can significantly affect futures markets. The reason they’ve been released directly to the public in the past is to both limit potential political interference, and limit the chance of insiders trading in advance off information that belongs to everyone.
Reilly will go before the full Senate for confirmation. It’s unlikely that anyone will find fault in the selection and, in fact, Reilly might be the most qualified person yet nominated to a position under Trump. But while he might have delivered information to “his leadership” in previous jobs, Reilly needs to understand that handing Ryan Zinke anything that gives him a personal edge is a mistake.