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The Honorable Mike Lee |
The Honorable Martin Heinrich |
Re: Oppose the Nomination of Kathleen Sgamma for Director of the Bureau of Land Management
Dear Chairman Lee and Ranking Member Heinrich,
On behalf of our more than 125 organizations and our millions of members and supporters, we write to strongly urge you to oppose the nomination of Kathleen Sgamma to be the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Responsible for leading the nation’s largest land management agency, the person nominated for this job cannot be someone with inherent conflicts of interest that will interfere with the ability of the agency to fulfill its lawful mission.
Ms. Sgamma’s history of litigating and testifying against the agency, alongside her singular, and career-long, commitment to the oil and gas industry, make her an unacceptable candidate to lead this complex multiple-use agency.
The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for managing 245 million acres of public lands, and 700 million acres of mineral estate. As defined under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the agency’s mission is defined as multiple-use and sustained yield, which includes management of those lands for uses including grazing, mining, fossil fuel production leasing, renewable energy production, outdoor recreation, and conservation. The Director of the BLM must lead this agency with balance in mind to achieve this mission. A nominee with a conflict of interest, specifically one with ties to the oil and gas industry, cannot and will not be able to maintain a commitment to the broader agency mission.
In order to fully achieve that mission, the BLM needs a leader who understands that for decades, Congress has failed to provide the funding and resources necessary for the agency to fulfill its multiple use and sustained yield mission on behalf of the American people. Whether it’s processing oil and gas leases, ensuring safe outdoor recreation opportunities, siting renewable energy development opportunities, completing resource management plans, or fulfilling outdoor recreation applications and renewals, the BLM needs a Director who fundamentally understands that to do this work, the agency needs more funding and staff, and a leader who will stand behind them and advocate for them. Ms. Sgamma, through her organization’s litigation against the BLM, her testimony against the agency before Congress, and her sympathy for the Bundys and their armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge citing the need for less federal land ownership, will never have the credibility within the BLM to lead the hardworking staff who have committed their careers to managing our public lands. These critical public servants deserve a Director who will lead and advocate for them, not someone who has spent decades undermining them.
Finally, Ms. Sgamma has spent more than 18 years leading the Western Energy Alliance as a lobbyist for oil and gas companies. Through her organization’s mission and litigation, as well as her public testimony before Congress, she has proven that she has no interest in the BLM’s multiple-use mission beyond the extraction of oil and gas from the lands the agency manages.
She has downplayed climate change, calling its impact “infinitesimal,” while helping the fossil fuel industry to undermine environmental protections and opposing common sense policies to protect communities from the impacts of climate change and energy extraction. If past is prologue, Ms. Sgamma will never have the interests of your constituents in mind serving as Director of the BLM, but she will always leave her office door open for fossil fuel CEOs.
In choosing Kathleen Sgamma as the nominee to lead the BLM, the Trump administration is sending a clear and unambiguous message that BLM lands will be used for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry, not local communities; that their definition of “multiple-use” will be exclusively for extractive uses and will leave no room for outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation; and that their land management priorities will be focused on selling off land to the highest bidder rather than conserving America’s priceless public lands for the benefit of future generations. For these reasons, we strongly urge you to reject her nomination.
Sincerely,
350.org
Accountable.us
Alaska Wilderness League
Alta Peak Chapter, California Native Plant Society
Applegate Siskiyou Alliance
Archaeology Southwest
Arizona Zoological Society
Bozeman Birders
Build A Better Planet
Cactus To Cloud Institute
California Environmental Voters
California Native Plant Society
Californians for Western Wilderness
CalWild
Carrizo Plain Conservancy
Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund
Clean Energy Action
Climate Hawks Vote
CO Dem Party – Energy & Environment Initiative
Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Colorado Wildlands Project
Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas (COFEM)
Conservation Lands Foundation
DamDol Enterprises
Day One
Defenders of Wildlife
Dolores River Boating Advocates
Dream Tank
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Earthjustice
Earthworks
Empower our Future
Endangered Habitats League
Environmental Center of San Diego
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Protection Information Center- EPIC
Forest Keeper
Friends of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve
Friends of Browns Canyon
Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks
Friends of Headwaters Forest Reserve
Friends of Ironwood Forest
Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
Friends of Rio Grande del Norte
Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument
Friends of the Amargosa Basin
Friends of the Dunes
Friends of the Inyo
Friends of the Owyhee
Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses
Gallatin Wildlife Association
Gila Resources Information Project
Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Grand Valley Citizens Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness- South San Juan Broadband
Green America
GreenLatinos
Healthy Ocean Coalition
Heart of the Wild Equine Rescue
Inland Ocean Coalition
Kettle Range Conservation Group
King Range Alliance
KS Wild
Latino Outdoors
League of Conservation Voters
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust
Los Padres ForestWatch
Mattole Restoration Council
Micah Six Eight Mission
Montana Conservation V oters
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center
Naeva
Nature For All
Nevada Conservation League
New Mexico Wild
Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment
Northcoast Environmental Center
NTS Group
Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project
Ocean Conservation Research
Oregon League of Conservation Voters
Oregon Natural Desert Association
Oregon Wild
Outward Bound Adventures
Patagonia
Physicians for Social Responsibility PA
Protect Our Winters
Public Citizen
Resource Renewal Institute
Rio Grande Valley Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness
SAFE Alternatives for Our Forest Environment
San Juan Citizens Alliance
San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council
San Pedro 100
Sanctuary Forest, Inc.
Save Red Rock
Save San Pascual Park
Save West Mamm Creek
Sierra Club
Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter
Sierra Nevada Alliance
Silvix Resources
Soda Mountain Wilderness Council
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Sweet Grass Advocacy for North American Equines
The CLEO Institute
The Forest Advocate
The Ocean Project
The Rachel Carson Council
The SummerTree Institute
Trinidad Coastal Land Trust
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Upper Gila Watershed Alliance
Washington Wild
Western Colorado Alliance
Western Environmental Law Center
Western Organization of Resource Councils
Wild Montana
Wilderness Workshop
Wolf Conservation Center
Wyoming Outdoor Council
Wyoming Wilderness Association
Wyoming Wildlife Advocates