Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – How Does That Work?

Hello, I’m Sam Jones.

You already know that Governor Mary Fallin was called to meet with
Donald Trump, about a possible appointment to his administration. She is on record as saying
she is open to the idea of leaving Oklahoma to work in his administration. You also know you
paid the $6000 tab for her job interview. One of the positions discussed was head of the Department of the Interior.

What you may not know is, how does that work, a sitting governor appointed to take the reigns of a federal agency for which she has no training. Let me see if I can shine a little light on it. Should she get the appointment, she would of course resign as Governor and move to Washington to fill the post. But she has no training or background for such a position you say. No problem. You see, the person below the post she’ll be taking is the one that truly understands how the agency works so that person will actually be her handler. Fallin’s job will be to implement the new President’s direction for the agency and the number two person there will help her do that.

Now its important you know the Department of the Interior also controls the National Park Service. The Park Service manages all U.S. national parks, many national monuments and other conservation and historical properties. You also need to know that there has been a move to make the nation’s parks more friendly to oil and natural gas drilling operations. Mary Fallin would be a good fit. Of course her biggest competitor would likely be Sara Palin, who is fond of saying, “drill baby drill.” and she is also making herself available to the Trump administration. Now I don’t know if any of this will come to pass but let me just ask you this:

Does the idea of oil and gas exploration in areas of our national parks now off limits, bother you?

It should. What about fracking? Would that be allowed? We’ve seen what that sort of operation has done to parts of Oklahoma. Ask the folks who live in Cushing about it. We are now the earthquake capitol of the world.

And if fracking makes its way into our federal park system, would we see Smoky the Bear run out of our national forests because the ground shakes too much?

What would Mary Fallin or Sara Palin bring to our wonderful park systems? What about
commercial development? Hotels and resorts? Maybe an airport or two. How does that work?

I don’t know what’s coming but given their past job performances, I ask you, should we be worried?

That’s my Perspective.