• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer

2

Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back

3

Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026

1

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer

2

Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back

3

Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
CommentaryU.S. National Parks

Commentary: Secretary Zinke’s Empty Promise to Fund the National Parks

By
Matt Lee-Ashley
Matt Lee-Ashley
and
Bethany Cianciolo
Bethany Cianciolo
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Matt Lee-Ashley
Matt Lee-Ashley
and
Bethany Cianciolo
Bethany Cianciolo
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 16, 2018, 11:44 AM ET

As the saying goes: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Take Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s proposal to use new revenues from drilling and mining on America’s public lands and oceans to fix up bathrooms, roads, and parking lots in the national parks.

At first glance, the concept seems benign. In fact, a bill to codify it—the National Park Restoration Act—has attracted a bipartisan handful of cosponsors in the Senate and the House.

Read the fine print of Zinke’s proposal, however, and you find a policy proposal that is as diabolically cynical as it is fiscally negligent.

Zinke’s National Park Restoration Act specifies that only if federal energy revenues exceed $7.8 billion per year will the national parks begin to see money for maintenance. For context, federal energy revenues from 2015 to 2017 averaged $6.4 billion per year. In other words, the national parks will not receive a single extra dollar unless oil, gas, and coal revenues to the federal government rise dramatically.

Whether the Grand Canyon can afford to fix its drinking water system should, under no circumstances, depend on whether global oil prices climb high enough to put some money in the National Park Service’s maintenance budget.

But the Trump administration’s oil-for-bathrooms plan is neither likely nor intended to help the national parks. Its primary aim is to justify President Trump’s controversial “energy dominance” agenda.

The administration’s logic goes like this: To generate revenues to fix up our national parks, the U.S. government needs to dramatically expand drilling and mining on America’s public lands and oceans.

Specifically, Secretary Zinke is proposing to allow drilling off every American beach, from California to Florida. He has opened Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to mining, and is preparing to sell off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry.

These are American landscapes where drill rigs and strip mines simply don’t belong. And the idea of selling out these places to help fund the national parks would only add insult to injury.

We are not a country that needs to mine our national monuments to fix roads and commodes in the parks.

To be sure, our national parks and public lands are in dire need of sustained investment. For years, Congress has consistently underfunded America’s natural resource agencies. The U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management have identified more than more than $7.5 billion in maintenance needs for roads, trails, and other infrastructure. The National Park Service has identified a wish list of more than $11 billion in maintenance work, of which roughly $1.3 billion is, in the agency’s assessment, in the most urgent and critical need of attention.

Instead of enacting the Trump administration’s empty funding promise in the National Park Restoration Act, however, Congress should do its basic job of passing adequate annual appropriations.

Sensible, balanced, and sustained investments in the operation and maintenance of all of America’s natural resource agencies will fix up our parks and public lands faster than a hollow oil-for-bathrooms scheme.

More importantly, however, we should be measuring the condition of America’s parks and public lands not solely by the number of potholes in the parking lots, but on the abundance of our wildlife, the purity of our waters, and the wildness of our backcountry.

 

In fact, it is for this purpose—to conserve natural areas and wildlife across America—that Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) more than 50 years ago. The LWCF, America’s most successful conservation program, uses revenues from existing oil and gas extraction (not the fairytale windfall the Trump administration is promising with its radical and controversial expansion of drilling and mining) to create new parks, protect Civil War battlefields, and expand public access to our outdoors for hunting, fishing, and hiking.

Unlike Zinke’s National Park Restoration Act, the LWCF is a true conservation royalty, in that it uses the revenues from the depletion of finite resources—oil and gas—to permanently protect our natural, historic, and cultural inheritance.

Congress should have no trouble distinguishing a good idea from a bad one. Its Land and Water Conservation Fund—which is scheduled to expire in a matter of months—should be renewed, expanded, and celebrated. The Trump administration’s National Park Restoration Act belongs in the dustbin of false promises and budget gimmicks.

Matt Lee-Ashley is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

About the Authors
By Matt Lee-Ashley
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Bethany Cianciolo
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Commentary

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Commentary

fort
CommentaryFlorida
Ken Griffin has Miami. Stephen Ross has West Palm Beach. Fort Lauderdale had Wayne Huizenga — and it’s been winning ever since
By Jenni MorejonJune 12, 2026
3 hours ago
Three ways that Asia’s enterprises are adopting AI—and where they are falling behind
CommentaryOracle
Three ways that Asia’s enterprises are adopting AI—and where they are falling behind
By Garrett IlgJune 11, 2026
17 hours ago
gordon
CommentaryVenture Capital
Gordon Ritter: I predicted AI’s learning loop a decade ago. The doomers are still measuring the wrong thing
By Gordon RitterJune 11, 2026
1 day ago
bessent
CommentarySocial Security
Social Security and Medicare are heading toward insolvency. Congress has 6 years to act
By Steve H. Hanke and David M. WalkerJune 11, 2026
1 day ago
Digital sovereignty isn’t the same thing as digital isolation. Asia’s governments should be careful
Commentarydata sovereignty
Digital sovereignty isn’t the same thing as digital isolation. Asia’s governments should be careful
By Leonard LimJune 10, 2026
2 days ago
tim
CommentaryAirline industry
Merlin CTO: autonomy can rebuild the foundation of aviation — and national security
By Tim BurnsJune 9, 2026
3 days ago

Most Popular

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer
Energy
Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer
By Sasha RogelbergJune 10, 2026
2 days ago
Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back
Environment
Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back
By Catherina GioinoJune 9, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 11, 2026
1 day ago
When SpaceX starts trading, some 'shareholders' will discover they own nothing at all
Investing
When SpaceX starts trading, some 'shareholders' will discover they own nothing at all
By Jim EdwardsJune 12, 2026
4 hours ago
Marc Lore’s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45
Innovation
Marc Lore’s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45
By Amanda GerutJune 9, 2026
3 days ago
Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there
Success
Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there
By Preston ForeJune 8, 2026
4 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.