More Lobbyists Turn Up At Trump’s Interior Department

They join a stable of industry insiders at DOI, including DOGE operative Tyler Hassen, who made millions in the energy sector before joining the agency

Photo by Jimmy Tobias

Two more former industry lobbyists have taken up influential positions at President Trump’s Interior Department, Public Domain has learned.

The first, Smythe Anderson, is working as a senior advisor. She comes to DOI from the American Energy Alliance and its sister organization, the Institute for Energy Research, where she served as the director of government relations and external affairs. The American Energy Alliance is a free-market energy advocacy organization that has close ties to the conservative Koch brothers and their vast political network. In recent years the organization has advocated against the fossil fuel divestment movement, against more stringent ozone pollution limits, and against subsidies for wind energy and electric vehicles.

Prior to her work at AEA, Anderson was a lobbyist on tax and environmental issues for the American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil and gas trade group in the country. She also previously worked in Chevron’s government affairs office.

A person named Dustin Sherer has also joined DOI. That name matches a long-time Republican operative who most recently worked as the director of government affairs at the American Farm Bureau Federation, one of the agriculture industry’s largest and most powerful lobbying groups. Last year alone the federation spent some $1.3 million on lobbying expenses. Senate lobbying disclosure forms show Sherer has lobbied on behalf of the industry on water infrastructure and water development issues, among other priorities.

In a response to queries about these new appointees, an Interior Department spokesperson in a statement wrote that all “Interior employees work with the Department’s Ethics Office to ensure high ethical standards are met. Full stop. We are pleased that so many talented and successful individuals from around the country have left their private sector jobs to join President Trump’s administration.”

A photo of Smythe Anderson from her IER profile

Anderson and Sherer join a large stable of former lobbyists and industry insiders currently working at Trump’s Interior Department. These include: Matthew Schafle, a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association; Adam Suess, a former executive at Sinclair Oil Corporation; Matt Giacona, a former advocate for offshore oil drillers now serving as the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; and Kate MacGregor, a former executive at NextEra Energy and President Trump’s nominee to be the deputy Interior secretary.

Then of course there is Tyler Hassen, a DOGE operative who has embedded into a powerful role overseeing the Interior Department’s personnel, management and budget functions. He has played a key role in engineering the mass exodus of civil servants from DOI and its bureaus in recent months. As the Associated Press first reported this week, Hassen, a former Texas oil executive, has extensive financial interests in a wide range of industrial enterprises. He made almost $4 million annually while working for his previous employer, Basin Holdings, which owns oil field services companies and other industrial firms, according to AP. He also has at least $50,000 invested in a crypto mining firm, and wide ranging stock investments, including in the oil and gas and mining sectors. At least one company he has invested in, the Albemarle Corporation, is currently seeking approval from DOI to expand a lithium mine on public and private land in Nevada. Hassen, according to AP, has not filed a divestment commitment for these holdings.

Conservationists, in a statement to Public Domain, slammed Hassen’s “financial conflicts” and his immense sway over Interior Department policy.

“[Interior Secretary] Doug Burgum has given up control to an oil executive who has no idea how to run a cabinet-level agency, much less America’s public lands,” said Rachael Hamby, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group. “If President Trump thinks Hassen is qualified for this job, he should ask the Senate to confirm him, and Hassen should be required to divest from his numerous financial conflicts.”

Norah Findley contributed research to this article.