A sign on BLM land in Utah. Photo: Bernard Friel/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
President Trump has nominated Kathleen Sgamma, longtime president of the Western Energy Alliance, to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
Why it matters: Sgamma's leadership at the agency would mark a sharp departure from its environmental and clean energy focus during the Biden administration.
- She's appeared frequently on the Hill and in the media to advocate for oil and gas development on public lands and scaling back regulation of the industry.
Driving the news: If confirmed, she would lead the administration's efforts to roll back BLM's controversial Conservation and Landscape Health rule, which seeks to add conservation as a priority alongside development in the agency's management of federal lands.
- She'd also be involved with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's push to reinstate revoked BLM natural resource leases and speed drilling permits.
The other side: "This appointment will hand the keys to our public lands over to oil and gas companies," Center for Western Priorities policy director Rachael Hamby said in a statement.
Zoom in: Trump on Tuesday also tapped Audrey Robertson, an oil and gas exec and board member at Energy Secretary Chris Wright's Liberty Energy, to lead DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs.
- And Aaron Szabo, a lobbyist and former official at NRC and the White House, was nominated to be an assistant administrator at EPA, reportedly to lead the agency's air office.
Other new nominees sent to the Senate on Tuesday include:
- Ned Mamula, a geologist and former DOE program director, to be director of the U.S. Geological Survey.
- Wayne Palmer, an official in Trump's first administration, to lead the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
- Brian Nesvik, a former Wyoming state official, to be director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
