The former congressman who President Donald Trump picked to lead the Bureau of Land Management could be ripped right out of the administration’s “energy dominance” playbook.
Steve Pearce, 78, is a former Air Force pilot who served in the Vietnam War who returned home and made a small fortune in the oil and gas business. He represented New Mexico’s corner of the oil-rich Permian Basin for seven terms as a Republican lawmaker, supporting expanded drilling and mining on federal lands, loosening regulations, and curbing moves to ramp up conservation protections.
Ending a six-year stint as state chair of the Republican Party a year ago, he’s also a fervent Trump supporter, including publicly backing the president’s false claim that fraud tipped the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. With that, Pearce seemingly passed the test failed by Trump’s first choice for the job: oil and gas lobbyist Kathleen Sgamma, who dropped out of consideration in April when it was revealed she’d condemned the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection by the president’s supporters.
David Bernhardt, a former Interior secretary during Trump’s first term, said Pearce is the right person to work with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to make Trump’s energy vision a reality.
