President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Stevan Pearce of New Mexico to be director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.
If confirmed, Pearce, a former Republican member of Congress who served from 2003-2009 and 2011-2019, would oversee management of all federal oil and gas resources and 245 million acres of public lands, mostly in the West.
As a member of Congress, Pearce opposed the use of the Antiquities Act to create large national monuments, including the BLM-managed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. He called large monuments an “abuse” of the act and supported ...