- Trump nominated former New Mexico GOP Rep. Steve Pearce as director of the BLM.
- Pearce has supported natural resource extraction and opposed public land ownership.
- Pearce's nomination drew both praise and criticism from various groups and individuals.
The Trump administration has announced its new choice to head the Bureau of Land Management, six months after the previous nominee was asked to withdraw and 10 months since the president took office.
Steve Pearce, a former New Mexico congressman, was nominated Wednesday to lead the federal agency responsible for more than 245 million acres of land across the country, including 22.8 million acres in Utah.
His nomination as BLM director must be confirmed by the Senate.
Responses to the news were spirited. Republicans and energy advocates celebrated his nomination, while Democratic leaders and conservation advocacy organizations expressed serious concern.
“I am pleased that President Trump has nominated my friend and former House colleague, Steve Pearce, to serve as the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said in a statement.
“This nomination is a major win for Wyoming and the entire West, and I’m glad to see such a crucial role filled by someone so well qualified. I urge a swift confirmation.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Western Energy Alliance and the American Exploration & Mining Association all expressed similar excitement over the news.
“Steve is a westerner with a deep understanding of the value of responsible multiple uses on public lands,” Mark Compton, the director of the AEMA, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with him once again to create a stable, predictable regulatory environment that will lead to a stronger domestic mineral industry, and we urge a speedy confirmation process in the Senate.”
Deb Haaland, current New Mexico gubernatorial candidate and the former Secretary of the Interior, suggested that Pearce’s priorities were not aligned with the role.
“Steve Pearce is a dangerous choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management. In New Mexico we value our lands and waters, and we need a manager who would be a good steward,” Haaland, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Pearce, she said, has a record of threatening New Mexico’s public lands, putting profits over people and neglecting the needs of the state.
Both New Mexico’s Democratic senators, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, expressed concerns to the Albuquerque Journal.
“I have serious concerns that Mr. Pearce would serve only to advance President Trump’s agenda,” Luján said in a statement to the Journal. ”And roll back the progress we’ve fought to achieve — from strengthening our outdoor recreation economy to protecting our lands and environment."
Conservation advocacy groups were less measured in their responses, and called on Congress to reject Pearce’s nomination.
“Steve Pearce’s nomination is even more proof that President Trump and Interior Secretary (Doug) Burgum are determined to undermine, sell out, and eventually sell off America’s public lands,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director for the Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement.
“Pearce’s entire political career has been dedicated to blocking Americans’ access to public lands while giving the oil and gas industry free rein to drill and frack anywhere they wanted.”
Who is Steve Pearce?
Pearce, 78, is a former Air Force captain and oil services executive who entered New Mexico politics in the late 1990s.
He first won elected office in 1997 for a seat in the New Mexico statehouse. Following that tenure, he served in the U.S. House for 13 years, in two different periods from 2003-2009 and then 2011-2019. He was a member of the Freedom Caucus, Constitution Caucus and the Western Caucus.
He lost a U.S. Senate race in 2008 and a bid for governor in 2018. Most recently, he was the chair of the New Mexico Republican Party from 2018 to December 2024.
Pearce has stayed fiercely loyal to President Donald Trump through all of the ups and downs of the last several years. Most notably, he falsely claimed massive voter fraud in the 2020 election and said the election “tarnished” American democracy.
During his time in Congress, he was a champion of resource extraction, an opponent of the Antiquities Act and fought to limit the expansions of national monuments in New Mexico and Utah. It was an issue that he worked on with former Utah GOP Rep. Rob Bishop during their tenure on the Natural Resource Committee.
Those priorities are among the reasons Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance released a statement opposing his nomination.
“A longtime player in unsuccessful efforts to prioritize resource extraction and privatize or sell off public lands, Steve Pearce is uniquely unqualified to hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Land Management,” said Scott Braden, the executive director of the SUWA.
Trump’s former BLM director nominee, Kathleen Sgamma, was excited by Pearce’s selection, but also at the prospect of a new candidate for the role left to an acting agency head for nearly a year.
“I was relieved to see the announcement yesterday, since BLM really needs a strong leader in place with so much change happening,” Sgamma wrote in a statement. “Former Congressman Steve Pearce is a great pick for BLM Director. He has the leadership and deep public lands knowledge to move the unleashing American energy agenda forward on federal lands.”