Zinke is also a climate-change denier. He's not a scientist, but a like lot of conservatives, he is 100% certain in what he "sees" and believes... and in conspiracies. In other words, scientific evidence or facts don't really matter when it comes to policy-making. 

I do wonder why these people, like Zinke, who've shown disdain and contempt for the federal government always find themselves wanting to work for it. Zinke supported that Montana group that espoused armed resistance against the federal government. Rick Perry, who couldn't name three federal departments or agencies he would eliminate when asked at a presidential debate apparently now wants to be Secretary of the Department of Energy (one of the departments he couldn't name). And Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development? He admitted in an interview a week after the election when his name surfaced as Trump's nominee for that position that he's "not qualified" because he's "never run a federal agency before".