Patagonia founder rejects ‘disingenuous’ invitation to testify

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard on Tuesday rejected an invitation to testify before the House Natural Resources Committee, calling it “disingenuous.”

Chouinard had been invited to testify before the committee by Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) about the Antiquities Act, after Patagonia criticized President Trump’s decision to shrink the size of two national monuments in Utah.

{mosads}“I find it disingenuous that after unethically using taxpayers’ resources to call us liars, you would ask me to testify in front of a committee for a matter already decided by the administration and applauded by the Utah delegation just a week ago,” Chouinard wrote in an open letter posted on Patagonia’s website on Tuesday.

“It is clear the House Committee on Natural Resources, like many committees in this failed Orwellian government, is shackled to special interests of oil, gas, and mining and will seek to sell off our public lands at every turn.”

He added that he had “little hope that you are working in good faith with this invitation.”

Patagonia had slammed Trump’s decision to reduce the size of the monuments by displaying a message that read “The President Stole Your Land” on the company’s website and filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the move.

The Natural Resources Committee fired back with a similar ad that read “Patagonia Is Lying To You.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also criticized the company over the move, calling Patagonia a “special interest.”

CORRECTION 6:05 P.M.: An earlier version of this story misidentified Chouinard. Rose Marcario is Patagonia’s president and CEO.