Trump BLM pick’s calls to sell off public land, expand drilling, alarm environmentalists

WASHINGTON – Environmental groups in Arizona are raising alarms over President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, former New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce.

Pearce’s long record of supporting the sale of public land, opposing protection of national monuments and pushing to expand oil and gas extraction, they say, makes him unfit to lead the agency responsible for one-tenth of the nation’s land.

Matthew Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association, called the nomination a “nightmare” and Pearce “the worst nominee for a leadership position under this administration yet.”

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Pearce, a former chair of the New Mexico GOP, served seven terms in Congress. He lost bids for Senate in 2008 and governor in 2018.

His promotion of mining, drilling and reducing the boundaries of national monuments earned a 4% rating from the League of Conservation Voters.

Trump allies have embraced the nomination.

“Steve’s leadership will be invaluable in managing our public lands and wisely stewarding our resources,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who chairs the Senate Western Caucus, said after the White House announced the pick Nov. 5. “This nomination is a major win for Wyoming and the entire West.”

Environmentalists strongly disagree.

Nelson called Pearce “a climate change denier, an ally of the oil and gas industry, and an opponent of the landscapes and waters that generations of Americans cherish.”

The BLM manages 245 million acres nationwide, including 12.1 million in Arizona – cultural and historic sites, wildlife habitat, tribal heritage and recreation sites, renewable energy projects and grazing allotments.

It also manages 17.5 million subsurface acres in Arizona with potential for mining and other extractive industry.

Among the lowlights of Pearce’s record, in the view of his critics:

In 2012, he called for selling off much of the 650 million acres owned nationwide by the federal government. “Most of it we do not even need,” he and a Utah colleague, Rep. Rob Bishop, argued in a joint proposal to address a budget crunch.

In particular they said, land managed by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service – as opposed to national parks, “our nation’s most treasured landscapes” – should be sold off to reduce costs and boost revenue.

They also called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, along with the Green River Formation, a massive shale oil deposit that spans Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, to boost federal revenues

In 2016, Pearce co-sponsored a bill to speed the sale or exchange of certain BLM lands to local governments.

He opposed President Barack Obama’s designation of the 500,000 acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico, and lobbied the first Trump administration to scale it back. He also pushed legislation to block future presidents from establishing national monuments in his state.

Pearce has also supported efforts to eliminate regulatory barriers to hardrock mining on public lands.

Pearce did not respond to a request for comment.

By law, the BLM’s mandate is to strike a balance between energy development, livestock grazing, recreation and timber harvesting while ensuring that public lands and cultural, and historic resources are maintained for future use.

Industry groups have praised Trump’s selection.

The Western Energy Alliance, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council, which represents cattle and sheep producers who hold federal grazing permits, endorsed Pearce.

Steve Trussell, executive director of the Arizona Mining Association, called him “a strong fit for the administration’s western resource development agenda.”

But a host of environmental activists say Pearce’s priorities make him a threat to cultural sites, sacred lands, wildlife habitat and recreation areas.

“We are concerned that there will be an attempt to weaken protections for places such as the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area and the lands that are part of the Great Bend of the Gila,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.

Michael Carroll, BLM campaigns director at The Wilderness Society, called Pearce “a clear and present danger to public lands.”

“His positions, especially those focused on public ownership of our deserts, forests, parks and national monuments, have earned him the nickname ‘Sell-off Steve,’” Carroll said by email. “He would work to eliminate some of our most important public lands.”

For Arizona, he said, the stakes are especially high, given how much of the state is under BLM control.

“Public lands and access to places to hike, bike, hunt, fish and take our families to get away from it all are part of Arizona’s way of life,” he said. “If Pearce is appointed, many of these special public lands will be under threat.”

In particular, Carroll said, “Arizonans should anticipate that he will target cherished national monuments like Ironwood Forest, Sonoran Desert and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon.”

Jocelyn Torres, chief conservation officer at the Conservation Lands Foundation, warned that Pearce’s record shows that he would narrow BLM’s mission “to extractive purposes only, eliminating room for recreation and conservation.”

“His priorities have and will continue to center on selling off public lands instead of preserving them for future generations,” she said in a statement.

On Oct. 8 and 9, the Senate approved resolutions to overturn Biden-era BLM moves to restrict drilling and mining in 12.4 million subsurface acres in Montana, 13.3 million acres in Alaska and more than 4 million subsurface acres in North Dakota. The House had already approved the resolutions.

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Nov. 19, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, called the congressional reversal of those plans “unprecedented.”

James Kenna, a retired state director of BLM in Arizona and California, warned lawmakers that repeal of those plans could create uncertainty for future management.

“I think it’s going to create a mess,” he testified.

Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, have not said whether they will support Pearce’s nomination.

At the hearing, Gallego raised concerns about BLM staffing and its implications for land management.

The bureau had a $1.4 billion budget last year. Trump is seeking one-third less for the new fiscal year.

“Regardless of what use you’d like to see BLM lands go to, you need BLM staff to get it approved. And 15% to 20% of BLM staff have been fired or forced to retire since the beginning of this year,” Gallego said. “So that just doesn’t make sense, and I urge the administration to reverse course.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.