President Trump's nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management sent shockwaves through the conservation community, with experts saying the move puts 245 million acres of pristine federal landscape in the crosshairs.
Former Rep. Steve Pearce's (R-NM) track record screams danger, warned Laiken Jordahl, an Arizona-based national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. An obsessed Pearce spent years flogging off America's public lands to the highest bidder, Jordahl wrote Thursday for the Arizona Mirror.
"With Pearce at the BLM’s helm, all of this is at risk," he said, referring to millions of acres of federal lands.
In 2012, Pearce declared the nation didn't need most federal lands and pushed legislation to hand them over to states and local governments — a backdoor path to privatization and development.
"If confirmed, Pearce would likely try to weaken protections, accelerate extraction and sell off public lands — just as he tried throughout his career," warned Jordahl.
"This would be a disaster for Arizona’s wildlife. It would also harm our rural communities and economy," he added.
To boot, the smoking gun that should shoot down Pearce's nomination is his staggering conflicts of interest. While serving in Congress, he owned oilfield equipment companies worth tens of millions of dollars and raked in over $2 million from oil and gas donors. His voting record was in lockstep with extractive industries, ramming through drilling permits while gutting environmental safeguards.
"Arizona’s wildlife, economy and natural heritage depend on keeping these landscapes protected and in public hands, now and for generations to come," concluded Jordahl. "Our public lands are not for sale."