Preszdent 3 Message Secretary Zinke Visits Western Energy Alliance Last week we got a call from Interior Secretary Zinke?s people saying that he would like to meet with a small group of Western Energy Alliance members when he was in town visiting with Governor Hickenlooper and state legislators. We were given strict instructions to keep the group small, so we invited members of our Board of Directors who have been active shaping our public lands policies. I'm sorry to all whom we were unable to invite. If we had our druthers, we would have had a larger event so that all members engaged on public lands could have been involved. But when the Interior Secretary calls for a meeting with ten people, you keep it to ten people! We were just glad to be the only stakeholder group he requested a meeting with on this trip, which included visits to Rocky Mountain National Park. Secretary Zinke has two primary goals that he likes to talk about: achieving American energy dominance, and reorganizing the Interior Department. Obviously, he's going to get nothing but support from Western Energy Alliance on the energy dominance agenda. We thanked him for all the policy changes his staff has enacted that are helping to reverse the devaluation of the federal mineral estate that had occurred over many years of additional red tape, process and obstruction. We asked how we can continue to support him and his staff, and he expressed appreciation for us taking a few of the bullets that come his way on controversial policy issues. We have been in the forefront of explaining these policies in the media directly and via Western Wire, which helps him counter the disinformation that comes from the environmental lobby. He had a few funny stories of how they twist positive environmental actions from Interior and spread falsehoods about new policies. We learned more about the reorganization of the department. When our Chairman, Rich Frommer and I attended a roundtable with him in DC. in June, he gave the large group quite a lot of information about his plans. When you consider that he's charged with managing an organization consisting of 61 different regional boundaries amongst the various services and bureaus, you can see why he would want to realign in a more rational manner. I had been hesitant at ?rst and fearful that the reorganization would detract from getting BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service back on track. But the re?nement of the new boundaries along state lines rather than ecosystems, as well as the outreach to stakeholders over the last several months have been very positive. Zinke sees three issues that will be managed jointly under the new regional structure: recreation, large environmental analyses, and permitting. We were able to delve more into the details on the last, and provided some ideas on how oil and natural gas permitting could be handled under his plans. We?re thrilled that Secretary Zinke took the time out of his busy schedule to visit Western Energy Alliance. We hope to continue to provide these types of opportunities to more members. Kathleen Sgamma President