Trump Budget Would Fund National Park Maintenance With Drilling Fees
Skift Take
If Interior Secretary Zinke really wanted to score some points for trying to address the National Park Service's maintenance backlog, he wouldn't make it contingent upon helping the oil industry and big business.
The Trump administration has an unusual strategy to fund the maintenance of U.S. national parks — generate monies by letting private companies lease oil drilling rights in the parks.
President Donald Trump released his proposed fiscal 2019 budget on Monday and it calls for a new fund to help tackle a $12 billion maintenance backlog at the parks.
A proposed Public Lands Infrastructure Fund could help make a dent in the maintenance backlog at national parks and other sites the Interior Department manages.
"The fund would be derived from 50 percent of incremental energy leasing receipts
over 2018 Budget projections that are not
