Date Issued
Report Type
Investigation
External Entity
Departmentwide
Description
OIG investigated potential improper influence by Steve Black, at the time a senior counselor to former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. We received information from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) agents in March 2013 that Black was dating a lobbyist for the renewable energy company NextEra Energy Resources. The agents were concerned that the relationship may have influenced alternative energy decisions involving the company.
As we investigated these concerns about Black, who resigned from DOI in May 2013, we learned of several other potential issues, which we included in our investigation:
- his friendships with other NextEra lobbyists;
- the timing of his eventual recusal from NextEra projects;
- the timing of the transfer of the lobbyist he was dating to Washington, DC;
- items of value that he accepted from NextEra after his recusal;
- his interest in becoming the CEO of a professional wind energy association while he was still acting in a governmental capacity; and
- possible pressure placed on FWS and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees to move renewable energy projects forward, despite environmental concerns.
We found that, in addition to the lobbyist he was dating, Black was friendly with other lobbyists associated with NextEra. None of the Federal employees we interviewed who were involved in permitting for NextEra projects, however, reported that Black gave preferential treatment to the company or that they felt pressured to make decisions that specifically benefited the company.
We also learned that while Black did recuse himself from involvement in NextEra matters, he did so months after he began dating the lobbyist. In addition, although the lobbyist told us she recused herself from NextEra’s DOI-related projects, we found evidence that she remained involved with some of them. We did not find that Black influenced her move to DC. We discovered that Black accepted items of value from NextEra, including hotel rooms and meals during business trips he took as the lobbyist’s guest, but he repaid these expenses after we interviewed him.
Regarding the other matters we investigated, a DOI ethics official stated that he did not find that Black violated any regulations when seeking employment with the wind association. Some FWS and BLM employees relayed concerns about receiving pressure from Black to reexamine their scientific opinions and make unsupportable changes to renewable-energy-related projects.
Joint Report
No
Agency Wide
Yes
Local File
Oversight Report File