A longtime oil and gas lobbyist has been nominated by President Trump to lead the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency tasked with stewarding 245 million acres of public land and 700 million acres of mineral leases across the country, the vast majority of which are in the West.
Kathleen Sgamma has spent almost 20 years leading the Western Energy Alliance, a five-person lobbying firm which focuses on representing the oil and gas industry’s interests in matters involving U.S. public lands. Her nomination to helm a 10,000-person agency responsible for vast swaths of the country’s landscapes sent shockwaves through Western environmental groups.
“Kathleen Sgamma would be an unmitigated disaster for our public lands as head of Trump’s Bureau of Land Management,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s hard to imagine how Trump could give a bigger middle finger to America’s public lands. Everyone who treasures the outdoors should oppose her nomination.”
“This appointment will hand the keys to our public lands over to oil and gas companies. Sgamma will seek to lease every inch of our lands for drilling, no matter their recreational, scenic, ecological, or cultural value,” said Rachael Hamby, policy director for the Center for Western Priorities, in a statement.
Sgamma declined to comment on her nomination when reached by email. The Western Energy Alliance and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) deferred comment to the White House, which has not yet commented on the nomination. Sgamma’s name appeared on a list of nominations sent to the Senate on Tuesday. Also on that list was President Trump’s pick for director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik.
Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Bracewell, a law and lobbying firm that represents energy companies, spoke highly of Sgamma’s nomination. “Sgamma’s nomination fits very well into the President’s current energy team because—just like her immediate boss, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright—she is uniquely qualified, understands the issues BLM is facing clearly and knows the stakeholders on both sides. She will be a strong voice for the Administration’s energy agenda and understands that conservation and energy can co-exist in a [rational] policy,” he said in a statement.
It is unclear what Sgamma’s agenda for the agency would be, though environmentalists have expressed deep concern for wildlife habitats that have been subject to oil and gas drilling or interest from the industry. Many suspect she will open up more public lands to oil and gas development, despite emissions from fossil fuels being the main driver of climate change.
“Big Oil CEOs already had a friendly face in the White House, and now they have the BLM on speed dial,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, in a statement. “By naming Sgamma to run BLM, Donald Trump is betraying the American people and threatening our public lands, all to keep the promise he made to the corporate polluters at Big Oil—‘If you raise a billion dollars for me, I’ll let you do whatever you want.’”
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BLM is required by law to consider multiple uses for public land when drafting management plans—including conservation, ranching, outdoor recreation and industrial development. Under the Biden administration, BLM issued a novel rule elevating conservation to equal footing with other multiple uses.
In response to an increase in regulations on the industry and a decrease in the number of new fossil fuel development leases on public lands, Sgamma testified in September 2023 before the House Committee on Natural Resources that the Biden administration was intent on “stopping American oil and natural gas,” despite oil and gas production reaching record highs under President Biden.
In that same hearing, Sgamma claimed the Texas blackout of 2021 was fueled by a grid “overbuilt on intermittent renewables,” echoing a popular but debunked refrain from fossil fuel boosters. While every type of electrical generation struggled during that storm, more natural gas and coal, which provides most of the electricity on Texas’ grid, went offline than renewable energy.
Manuel was also worried for the future of the newly minted Western Solar Plan, released under the Biden administration, which outlined areas of public land BLM deemed suitable for utility-scale solar development.
“It’s a real missed opportunity if they scale that back,” Manuel said. “Our public lands should be part of the solution on climate…as opposed to being part of the problem” by being used for generating more fossil fuels.
He feared that under Sgamma, BLM would adopt a narrow focus on expanding oil and gas development, to the detriment of conservation, hunting, recreation and other uses.
At least one prominent Western politician expressed optimism that Sgamma would help facilitate state-level purchases or exchanges of federal land. Mark Gordon, Wyoming’s Republican governor, praised Sgamma’s nomination and said he looked “forward to working with her on a range of issues, including our efforts to identify suitable BLM lands for purchase or exchange,” in a statement released yesterday.
“We understand BLM is a multiple use agency,” Manuel said, “but we don’t want the good stuff to fall by the wayside, and that’s what I think is gonna happen with her.”
Sgamma’s nomination hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has not yet been scheduled. If she is confirmed, her nomination will proceed to the Senate for a full vote.
Marianne Lavelle contributed reporting to this article.
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Jake Bolster reports on Wyoming and the West for Inside Climate News. Previously, he worked as a freelancer, covering climate change, energy, and the environment across the United States. He holds a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University.
