President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management earned as much as $1 million last year from a business often associated with oil and gas development and owned interests in oil leases in two states, a connection to the industry that has already drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and conservation groups that have questioned his track record in Congress.
Steve Pearce — nominated in November to be the BLM director — reported that he earned between $100,000 to $1 million in “Industrial equipment (Frac tanks lease to purchase),” according to a financial disclosure form signed in October that covers the past year. Frac tanks typically look like shipping containers and are often used to hold liquid associated with the fracking process, although they can be used by other industries.
Pearce and his wife, Cynthia, in the past few months also divested interest from several oil and gas leases that they held a financial stake in within the Permian Basin in New Mexico, according to an ethics agreement and the financial disclosure document posted online last week by the Office of Government Ethics.
The Pearces plan to divest their financial interest in oil and gas leases in Oklahoma within 90 days if he is confirmed by the Senate, according to the ethics agreement.
