President Donald Trump on Monday said he would nominate former energy lobbyist and Washington insider David Bernhardt to be secretary of the Interior -- the department that oversees U.S. public lands and parks.

Bernhardt, who is currently the acting secretary at the Interior Department, would replace Ryan Zinke..

Who left in late 2018 amid multiple ethics probes..

Bernhardt is widely expected to continue pushing Trump's agenda to boost domestic fossil fuels production, by opening more U.S. public lands to drilling and mining.

Bernhardt knows his way around Washington as a former Capitol Hill staffer who served under George W.

Bush.

Critics fear he'll roll back Obama-era protections.

He'd be in charge of managing more than 20 percent of the U.S. land surface, as Trump aims to boost U.S. "energy dominance." Bernhardt is the latest former lobbyist to be named by Trump ..after he nominated former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to replace Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency... Pruitt was pushed out amid his own cloud of alleged ethical violations .....