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Ex-Interior Department Official Who Backed Alaska Drilling Joins Oil Company

HeadlineSep 06, 2019

The Trump administration’s former top official overseeing oil and gas drilling on federal lands is joining an oil company that’s seeking to expand its operations in remote parts of northern Alaska near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Joe Balash stepped down as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management last Friday, and this week he confirmed he’s joining the Papua New Guinea-based company Oil Search as a senior vice president. Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight told The Washington Post, “It is hard to have confidence that decisions he was making while he was working for the taxpayers were not impacted by his aspirations or hopes to go work for a company that was materially affected by his work.”

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