The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees approximately 245 million acres of national public lands, including popular places for experiencing nature, significant cultural areas, historic sites, clean water sources, and wildlife habitat. In Michigan, BLM controls a significant acreage of oil and gas reserves that the agency offers for drilling leases.
The president's new pick to lead the nation's largest land management agency has built a career on privatizing public land. Steve Pearce has spent the last few decades quietly propping up and profiting from the oil and gas industry. His likely accession to lead the BLM is another sign that this administration favors profiteers over people and the public. Among our major concerns are:
- Pearce’s positions are at odds with America’s broad, bipartisan coalition who have said “NO” to public land selloffs. In 2012, Pearce sent a letter to the then-Speaker of the House saying “we do not even need” most public lands and advocated for their disposal.
- Elevating a longtime opponent of public land conservation to a top public land agency position serves one purpose: to lead the charge toward prioritizing drilling, mining, logging, and blocking public access to the nation’s public lands.
- Pearce has long supported stripping protections for public lands, which could hurt communities who depend on public lands and waters for their local economies, drinking water, cultural values, and quality of life.
- Pearce fought the creation of the popular Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and during Trump’s first term unsuccessfully urged the president to shrink it by 88 %.
You can TAKE ACTION NOW by:
Posting on your Senators’ social media