Overnight Energy: Dem House means new headache for Zinke | Spokesperson denies Zinke sought Fox News job | Dems to bring back key climate panel | Officials drop plan to sterilize Oregon wild horses

by Miranda Green - 11/08/18 5:12 PM ET

HOUSE FLIP CREATES BIG HEADACHE FOR ZINKE: Less than 24 hours after Republicans lost their House majority, Democrats vowed to take Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to task for a number of questionable actions and business deals, including one that’s under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

When the new Congress starts Jan. 3, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee will, for the first time since Zinke took office in March 2017, have the authority to compel him and others at the Interior Department to testify and provide records.

{mosads}Their newfound power — and zeal to sniff out potential corruption after what they characterize as a dereliction of oversight duties by the GOP — is likely to make life even more difficult for the embattled Interior secretary as Democrats look for potentially embarrassing or incriminating records that could help thwart President Trump’s agenda.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee who’s likely to wield the chairman’s gavel next year, is already promising to probe a controversial business deal that a foundation Zinke established struck with the chairman of oil services company Halliburton, as well as a failed administration attempt to replace the top official in Interior’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) with a political appointee.

The announcement to replace the top agency watchdog came after the watchdog referred an investigation into Zinke to the DOJ.

The timing “can’t be dismissed as merely a coincidence,” Grijalva told Bloomberg on Wednesday. “That’s why the oversight is so necessary.”

Environmental groups are also pushing Democrats to be aggressive in overseeing the former Montana congressman. They’re seeking answers on policy decisions at the department, such as weakening Endangered Species Act protections, shrinking national monument boundaries and sending U.S. Park Police officers to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Our overall impression is that there is an opportunity here for Congress to hold him accountable in a way that he hasn’t before,” Chris Saeger, executive director at the Western Values Project, told The Hill. “I think he has done enough to have a legitimate conversation about whether or not he should be fired, but until that happens, I think Congress should have the power it had all along to bring to light the motive behind his decisions.”

Kevin Curtis, executive director of the NRDC Action Fund, the campaign arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he thinks Zinke is in trouble.

“There’s 17, 18 investigations. Let’s have House chairmen step up and committees step up and really dig deep there,” Curtis told reporters.

Zinke is facing a handful of investigations from Interior’s OIG and elsewhere into his compliance with ethics rules.

The OIG recently referred its probe into the deal with Halliburton Chairman David Lesar to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.

Zinke is also under investigation for an American Indian casino in Connecticut he declined to approve after lobbying by a competitor, and for his role in redrawing a national monument’s boundaries in Utah in a manner that benefited a state lawmaker.