Position on the nomination of Steve Pearce to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management

Since 1919, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System, which includes their surrounding landscapes, historical resources, watersheds and more. On behalf of our nearly 1.6 million members and supporters nationwide, we urge you to oppose the nomination of former U.S. Representative Steve Pearce to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

National parks do not exist in isolation. They are part of their surrounding ecosystems, sharing water, air and wildlife which are unaware of human-drawn boundaries. Eighty national park units are directly adjacent to BLM-managed lands, and more are nearby. Activities on BLM lands have a direct impact on national parks, making BLM lands management critical to park protection.

The core responsibility of the BLM Director is to advance the Federal Land Policy and Management Act’s (FLPMA) multiple use mandate as explained in the law:

“a combination of balanced and diverse resource uses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and nonrenewable resources including, but not limited to, recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values; and harmonious and coordinated management of the various resources without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land and the quality of the environment with consideration being given to the relative values of the resources and not necessarily to the combination of uses that will give the greatest economic return or the greatest unit output.”

This mandate demands a leader that will balance the many uses of these public lands. A BLM Director must understand and demonstrate that conservation, wildlife and watershed protection, and historic preservation are not lesser uses to minerals management but co-equal under the law. This is especially true because the agency manages national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, national wild and scenic rivers, and national scenic and historic trails—places where conservation, scenic, scientific and historic resources and values are the paramount use.

New Mexico is a state that is rich in history and natural beauty with many lands protected and stories told by the land management agencies. Rep. Pearce consistently supported extractive uses over recreation, preservation and conservation—not demonstrating that important balance. As BLM Director he would be tasked with the care of 245 million acres of public land, including 31 national monuments. Yet he has championed legislation to shrink national monuments – including asking the president to do so unilaterally in New Mexico. He also has been an opponent of the Antiquities Act—authored by Republican President Teddy Roosevelt, supporting legislation that would limit it and even going so far as to introduce legislation to curtail the abilities of a president to designate national monuments. He has also pushed for the federal government to sell public land to pay off the federal deficit. His antipathy towards the conservation and protection of public lands brings into question how he would properly execute his duties.

In addition to the public land managed by the BLM, the agency also overseas roughly 700 million acres of subsurface mineral rights. Rep. Pearce has long been a champion of the oil and gas industry, including his ownership and investment in companies involved in oil and gas development. He used his time in Congress to block commonsense reforms to the federal oil and gas program – such as raising the royalty rates, regulating methane release, adequate bonding minimums, and minimum standards for the security of oil and gas facilities. By blocking these reforms, he helped ensure that the American people would not get fair payment for the use of federal resources while leaving them on the hook for cleaning up after industry is done extracting their resources.

Rep. Pearce is not the right choice to lead the BLM. The management of BLM lands has direct impacts on national parks, and the leadership of the Bureau must recognize that responsibility. His statements, voting record, sponsorship and co-sponsorship of legislation, and actions are overwhelmingly at odds with the stated mission of the BLM. If his nomination is approved, his statements and actions indicate that he will eschew the multiple-use mandate in favor of unfettered drilling and mining on public lands without considering how those actions will affect national parks, tribes and communities. We urge you to oppose the nomination of Steve Pearce for Director of the Bureau of Land Management.