U.S. Bureau of Land Management Working Its Hardest To Sell Public Property To Drilling, Mining Enterprises

by craigshieldsPosted on February 12, 2020 Posted in Sustainability

William Pendley, acting head of the BLM, appears to be headed for reappointment without any involvement from the American public.  OK, so what’s the issue?  Perry’s decades-long career as a property-rights lawyer whose focus was removing federal control of the public lands he now oversees.

From this article:

The dustup over Pendley began in July 2019, when he became acting head of the bureau—which oversees drilling, ranching, and recreation on 245 million acres of public lands, primarily in the West—and it hasn’t cleared since. A dozen Democratic senators and 91 conservation, hunting, public interest and wildlife groups have called for his ouster,

The Old West firebrand also has an inflammatory streak. He has slurred climate-change believers as “kooks” and sympathized with Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who was part of an armed standoff with federal agents after he refused to pay the bureau’s grazing fees.

“As someone who has spent his career advocating for the widespread sale of public lands, Mr. Pendley is the last person who should be running the BLM,” Democratic senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said. “Coloradans place enormous value on our public lands—not just from a conservation perspective, but because they serve as the backbone of our economy.”

Those who say that this administration “ruins everything it touches” are referring to issues like this, i.e., one in which the damage will remain long after Trump leaves office. Last week’s news item involving Trump’s awarding overt racist/misogynist Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom was another good example. From here on into perpetuity, that distinction will mean precisely zero.