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Hayes to leave Department of Interior
David Hayes, deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior, is to leave the agency, probably at the end of June, Interior announced on April 30. Hayes is moving to a new position as a senior fellow at the Hewlett Foundation and will also teach at Stanford Law School in the fall, Interior said. Hayes has been deputy secretary for more than four years and headed Interior’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In addition to his duties as deputy secretary, Hayes has chaired the Interagency Working Group, the group established by President Obama to coordinate and streamline federal permitting in Alaska.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve in President Obama’s administration and to work on some of the most important and challenging issues of our time,” Hayes said when announcing his departure from Interior.
“It was a difficult decision to leave the department, but I’m looking forward to heading out west to return to Stanford and to partner with the Hewlett Foundation where I will continue to develop progressive solutions to our nation’s environmental and natural resources challenges.”
Ken Salazar, who had been Interior Secretary during Hayes’ tenure as deputy secretary, left office in early April, with Sally Jewell taking over as interior secretary on April 12.
Key architect “David has been a key architect for nearly every significant initiative undertaken at Interior over the last four years,” Jewell said in response to Hayes’ departure. “From his work on expanding renewable energy production on public lands and waters, to coordinating federal family energy activities in Alaska, to developing a landscape-scale approach to conservation and climate change, David has left an indelible mark.”
Alaska’s two U.S. senators said that, while they had not always agreed with Hayes’ positions, they respected the deputy secretary’s integrity.
“I appreciate David’s willingness to engage on difficult issues important to Alaskans, including contentious land management policies and offshore oil and gas development,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
“David Hayes has been a good partner to Alaska,” said Sen. Mark Begich. “Together, we made significant progress on streamlining OCS permitting, and Alaska saw the first offshore wells drilled in decades. I know that without his commitment to the Alaska Interagency Working Group, we would not have seen that progress.”
—Alan Bailey
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