Steve Pearce, President Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, is known as an opponent of public lands and has been a staunch advocate for sell-off. Critics say this makes him unqualified to lead the agency that manages 245 million acres of lands primarily in the west.
“Confirming Steve Pearce would be the equivalent of hiring one of the ‘smash and grab’ jewelry thieves to manage the national treasure of our living public lands,” said John Robison, the public lands and wildlife director at the Idaho Conservation League. “Our BLM lands are already in enough trouble — understaffed, underfunded, and under increased pressure from invasive species, wildfires, and development and other risks. We do not need an auctioneer to hold a fire-sale of our public lands to the highest bidder or transfer them to the states (where they would inevitably be sold off).”
Others who oppose the nomination point out that Pearce co-sponsored legislation and led a proposal to sell off federal public lands in Congress, which he claimed would help reduce the deficit.
“This approach will not work at the Bureau of Land Management,” said Patrick M. Brenner, New Mexico conservative and president/CEO of the Southwest Public Policy Institute. “The agency has responsibilities managing oil leases, mineral royalties, grazing permits and wilderness areas, and it must balance the interests of ranchers, tribal nations, environmentalists and energy producers. That takes diplomacy and competence. Pearce, however, has spent his career alienating the very stakeholders he would be required to work with. In Congress, he voted against environmental protections, dismissed climate science and pushed to expand drilling in sensitive areas such as Otero Mesa.”
In addition to supporting the sell-off of public lands, Pearce has also criticized the value of national parks, urged counties to seize control of federal lands, supported shrinking national monuments, and co-sponsored legislation that would gut the Antiquities Act, a conservation tool used by presidents of both parties.
“Americans have time and time again, including just this past summer, rejected Mr. Pearce’s ideology and we urge Congress to do the same. As a former Congress member from New Mexico and former owner of an oilfield services company, Mr. Pearce has demonstrated that he is anything but a neutral arbiter,” said Jocelyn Torres, chief conservation officer at Conservation Lands Foundation. “He’s been a vocal supporter of selling off public lands, and spent much of his political career undermining the public’s access to public land and the bedrock environmental laws that enable their protection. He tried to virtually eliminate the national monument in his former district, ignoring the overwhelming local support and its economic benefits to the local economy. He has shown the country that he will prioritize industry profits, sacrificing the sustained health of our public lands and the American public's right to access them for recreation.”
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