WASHINGTON — Drue Pearce, a former president of the Alaska Senate, has taken a new job in the U.S. Interior Department.
“I'm counselor to the assistant secretary in the Land and Minerals hallway,” she said in an interview from her new office.
“Hallway” is not actually part of her title, but it does describe how the Interior Department’s D.C. headquarters is organized. The assistant secretary Pearce will work under is charged with implementing the Trump administration’s orders to unleash Alaska’s energy potential.
Pearce has worked for decades in this arena, as a federal appointee during the George W. Bush administration and the first Trump presidency, and most recently as a consultant and lobbyist at the firm Holland & Hart.
She calls some issues she’ll be working on, like opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development, old friends.
“I think I had my first ANWR briefing when I was first elected, but not yet sworn in, all the way back in 1984,” she said. “And we’re still at it.”
The Interior Department has also hired Kara Moriarity, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Her exact title hasn’t been announced, and she didn’t respond to an interview request Friday. Moriarity has worked for the industry trade association for 20 years.
News that Moriarty will have an important role in managing federal land in Alaska sparked criticism from the Sierra Club. The environmental group issued a statement saying an oil and gas lobbyist should not be in charge of treasured landscapes.
The Interior Department manages more than 200 million acres in Alaska, some of it in national parks and wildlife refuges.
