# The Plot to Loot America’s Wilderness

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2017/11/the-plot-to-loot-americas-wilderness/
- Published: 2017-11-25T06:36:27-05:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

# A little-known bureaucrat named James Cason is reshaping the Department of the Interior.

By Adam Federman

One day in Mid-March, James Cason, the associate deputy secretary at the Department
of the Interior, convened an impromptu meeting of the senior staff of the Bureau
of Land Management. Cason, whose office is on the sixth floor, rarely wandered the
halls, and some career civil servants still had never met him. A soft-spoken and
unassuming man, Cason has cycled in and out of Republican administrations since 
the early 1980s and has largely avoided public attention. But people who have worked
with him know him as a highly effective administrator and a disciple of some of 
the department’s most notorious anti-environment leaders in previous years—a “hatchet
man,” in the words of one former DOI employee who worked with him during the George
W. Bush administration.

About 30 employees were ushered into a conference room. All where Cason announced
that Kristin Bail, acting director of the BLM, would be replaced by Mike Nedd. The
move itself wasn’t all that surprising. For Bail, who came from a conservation background.
Also had been appointed in the final days of the Obama administration. That’s to
serve in a temporary capacity. So Nedd, who had been assistant director for energy,
minerals, and realty management since 2007. She was viewed as better positioned 
to implement the new administration’s pro-industry agenda.

![](https://i0.wp.com/greenlivingguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cover-nation20171204.
jpg?resize=780%2C1024&quality=52&ssl=1 "cover nation20171204 - The Green Living 
Guy")

But the way Cason handled the meeting sent a stark message. According to two people
who were present, he delivered what appeared to be hastily prepared remarks. For
that’s thanking Bail for her service. However telling her that she was no longer
needed in the position.

### One employee, who has since left the DOI, said it was unclear. I mean whether Bail had been told beforehand of her demotion.

“It was one of the most awkward, disrespectful things I’ve ever seen,” the former
employee said. The spectacle amounted to a kind of public dismissal. I mean and 
a warning shot. The meeting ended as abruptly as it had begun. That’s with employees
left staring at their seats. By the end of the day, Bail was carrying her things
out of her office in a box. Also looking for another place to sit.

This article was originally published as the cover story of the December 4-11, 2017
issue of The Nation magazine. For it’s produced in partnership with the Investigative
Fund. Also it is republished with permission. Continue reading here.

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 greenlivingguy

 The Green Living Guy, Seth Leitman is an independent power producer, a green living
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