A coalition of conservation and outdoors groups, including clothing company Patagonia, is asking a Senate committee to reject President Donald Trump’s nomination of an oil and gas industry advocate to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled Thursday to hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance. Trump nominated her for BLM director nearly two months ago, in early February.
The letter, signed by more than 125 groups and sent Monday to Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the committee chair, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the committee’s top Democrat, argues that Sgamma has too many conflicts of interest after years lobbying for the oil and gas industry as the Western Energy Alliance’s leader.
“Through her organization’s mission and litigation, as well as her public testimony before Congress, she has proven that she has no interest in the BLM’s multiple-use mission beyond the extraction of oil and gas from the lands the agency manages,” said the letter, which was led by the Conservation Lands Foundation and included Earthjustice, Sierra Club, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the League of Conservation Voters.
