Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin got her chance this week to meet with President-elect Donald Trump as he considers who to name to his administration and cabinet.
The Governor was asked to meet with Trump on Monday. So was former Texas Governor and GOP presidential rival Rick Perry who dropped out early from the GOP campaign.
Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to Trump told Fox News that Fallin was being considered to lead the Interior Department while Perry’s name was mentioned as leading the Energy or Defense Departments.
If Fallin were to become Interior Secretary, she would assume control of a federal agency that has been hit time and time again with lawsuits, many in regards to the Bureau of Land Management’s control of oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
One of those lawsuit was filed recently by the Pawnee Nation in Tulsa federal court. Another of the major lawsuits was filed in 2015 by the Independent Petroleum Association of America and Western Energy Alliance, challenging the BLM’s hydraulic fracturing regulations on federal and Indian lands. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Wyoming.
Observers might suggest that what could make Fallin an attractive nominee to become Interior Secretary under a Trump administration is her experience as governor of an oil-and-gas state. Not to mention her dealings with Native American tribes in Oklahoma, a state with the second largest Indian population in the United States.
But those same qualities might also be detractors for those protesting a Trump administration, especially the fact she might seem to be too friendly to the oil and gas industry. Some might raise questions about her own administration’s handling of steps regarding ways to control or end earthquakes caused by wastewater injection wells. Some critics have accused her of being too cozy with the energy industry.