White House withdraws nomination of William Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management

The Trump administration withdrew the controversial nomination of William “Perry” Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management on Saturday amid signs that the choice would hurt the reelection prospects of Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.). Earlier this month, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee received the materials needed to hold hearings on the nomination. But Democrats were planning to press Daines, who sits on the committee and is in a tight race with Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D). It was not clear whether Gardner or Daines would vote for Pendley. Earlier this month, the Montana League of Conservation Voters put up an ad showing beautiful vistas behind signs saying “FOR SALE PUBLIC LAND.” The ad calls Pendley an “anti-public land zealot” and urges voters to “tell Steve Daines our public lands are not for sale.” Pendley is BLM’s deputy director for policy and programs and has been acting as the bureau’s director since July 2019, overseeing the management of the nation’s federal lands. “Good riddance,” John Bowman, managing director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Saturday of the nomination being withdrawn. “Pendley never hid his intentions to hand over the country’s treasured resources to polluters and should never have been nominated.” Keeping Pendley on the job “shows the depth of disdain Secretary Bernhardt and President Trump have for the Constitution,” Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director of the Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement. She called his continuing role a “baldfaced” attempt “to evade the Senate’s advice-and-consent duties.” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), the ranking Democrat of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the interior, environment, and related agencies, said in a statement that “it’s hard to imagine a worse pick for BLM than someone who doesn’t believe in the very idea of conservation.” Udall said Pendley “should not be allowed to continue in this role in an acting, unconfirmed capacity.”...MORE

Earlier this month, the Montana League of Conservation Voters put up an ad showing beautiful vistas behind signs saying “FOR SALE PUBLIC LAND.” The ad calls Pendley an “anti-public land zealot” and urges voters to “tell Steve Daines our public lands are not for sale.” 

And it worked. You can be assured both weak-kneed Republicans worked behind the scenes to lobby for this outcome, with Gardner probably lobbying the hardest. The most recent polls have Gardner trailing Hickenlooper by 6 points, while Daines is leading Bullock by 6. The end result, though, is Trump did exactly what the enviros and Udall wanted, and that can't be good for the country.