President Donald Trump chose former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce to head the public lands agency, drawing ire from environmentalists.

By Kiley Price for Inside Climate News

President Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped a conservation critic and former oil industry executive to head up the federal agency that oversees the majority of public lands in the United States.

If approved, former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico will lead the Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for balancing conservation of public lands with human use, such as resource extraction and cattle grazing. Since January, the Trump administration has overwhelmingly prioritized the latter with the Department of the Interior—BLM’s parent agency—rapidly approving oil, gas and mining permits, including more than 600 n

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