President Donald Trump has nominated a Colorado-based advocate for the oil and gas industry to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management.
Kathleen Sgamma, the president of Western Energy Alliance since 2006, is also a U.S. Army veteran.
Her nomination was announced on the website Congress.gov. No comment by the White House has been publicly made available.
Sgamma recently said that she wants BLM to return to “regular order.”
“Moving forward with lease sales, moving forward with permitting on federal lands, moving forward with completing environmental analysis,” she told the Denver-based outlet. “We would expect the Trump administration to move forward and get those leases issued and development proceeding on them.”
Under the administration of former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., BLM advanced efforts to encourage production of renewable energy on the public lands under its control.
In a first for the agency, BLM finalized a rule last May that established conservation on an equal footing with grazing and other extractive uses on BLM lands. That rule took effect June 10.
Whether Sgamma will, if confirmed work to undo that landmark rule is not clear. However, she suggested Jan. 22 that a Trump executive order laid the groundwork to do so. That order purported to commit the U.S. government “to encourage energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf, in order to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.”
The nation is already the world’s leading producer of oil and gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Industry proponents argue that existing U.S. oil and gas production is not enough, despite the well-documented cost of greenhouse gas emissions and associated warming of the atmosphere and oceans that come with it. Indeed, several industry spokespersons asserted in statements that efforts to address the drivers and impacts of climate change are not in the public interest.
Sgamma herself made that claim last month. “The energy EO addresses both the very high-level policy changes necessary as well as the nitty gritty regulatory levers that need to be pulled to get the goals implemented effectively,” Sgamma said in a Jan. 22 press release from Western Energy Alliance. “It’s clear that the team that put together the executive order is very savvy about what needs to be done to unwind the regulatory damage of the Biden administration.”
The American Petroleum Institute, a powerful lobbying organization for the oil and gas industry, echoed the argument in comments supportive of Sgamma’s nomination, which likely would mean a return to the concentrated effort during the first Trump administration to commit BLM lands as much as possible to fossil fuel production.
“Kathleen Sgamma has been a longtime advocate for American energy,” said Dustin Meyer, API’s senior vice president for policy, economics and regulatory affairs. “We look forward to working with BLM to implement a pro-American approach to federal onshore leasing that fully leverages our nation’s abundant oil and natural gas resources as a critical source of affordable energy, government revenue and economic opportunity.”
Environmental protection advocates, not surprisingly, expressed unhappiness with the pick.
“Our public lands make this country great and belong to all Americans, not just billionaire oil executives,” said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club Land Protection Program. “This nomination makes it clear who Donald Trump thinks should have first dibs on our public lands, and it’s not the American people.”
Rachel Hamby, the policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, said Sgamma would lead a dedication of BLM to a single purpose that is not in the public’s interest. “This appointment will hand the keys to our public lands over to oil and gas companies,” Hamby said. “Sgamma will seek to lease every inch of our lands for drilling, no matter their recreational, scenic, ecological, or cultural value.”
The Center for Biological Diversity was particularly critical of Sgamma’s candidacy.
“Kathleen Sgamma would be an unmitigated disaster for our public lands as head of Trump’s Bureau of Land Management,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director for the organization, in an email statement. “She’s a fossil fuel industry hack with breathtaking disdain for environmental laws, endangered species, recreation, or anything other than industry profits. It’s hard to imagine how Trump could give a bigger middle finger to America’s public lands. Everyone who treasures the outdoors should oppose her nomination. If Sgamma’s confirmed, we’ll fight her attacks on public lands and wildlife at every step.”
Sgamma’s nomination must first be considered by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and then receive the assent of a majority of U.S. senators before she can be appointed.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., did not indicate a position on Sgamma’s nomination in response to an inquiry from Law of the West. “Senator Bennet looks forward to meeting with Ms. Sgamma,” said an email from his spokesperson Larkin Parker.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, Bennet’s Centennial State colleague, did not respond before press time to a request for comment.
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