Conservation groups are pressing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to reject President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, as the panel prepares for an expected confirmation hearing in coming weeks.
A coalition of 81 groups sent a letter Thursday to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources panel, and New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, the committee’s top Democrat, blasting Trump’s nomination of Steve Pearce for BLM director.
Pearce, a former seven-term Republican congressman from New Mexico who was considered a staunch ally of the oil and gas industry in Congress, “has based his political career in absolute disdain for the 245 million acres of public lands he has now been nominated to administer,” the letter states.
If confirmed, the coalition writes, Pearce “will severely undermine protections for recreation and cultural resources, air and water, and the nation’s most imperiled wildlife.”
