More than 80 environmental groups on Thursday called on U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) to oppose Republican former New Mexico congressman Steve Pearce’s nomination to lead the nation’s largest land management agency, decrying his “absolute disdain for the 245 million acres of public lands he has now been nominated to administer.”
President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 nominated Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that oversees public lands, including for recreation, cattle grazing and extraction of oil and natural gas.
Pearce, who founded an oilfield services company before getting into politics, represented New Mexico’s Second Congressional District in the southern part of the state between 2003 and 2009, then again from 2011 to 2019. He was most recently chair of the state Republican Party until late 2024.
His nomination drew swift criticism from environmental groups in New Mexico and across the country, including Thursday in a letter from a coalition of 81 national and local environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, GreenPeace, WildEarth Guardians and the Santa Fe Forest Project.
The coalition sent the letter to Lee, the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Heinrich, the ranking member, asking them to oppose Pearce’s nomination due to what members said is a long history of trying to undermine and privatize public lands. The letter cites his record in Congress, including his support in Trump’s first term of the president’s effort to shrink national monuments including Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
“Mr. Pearce’s persistent calls for the privatization of public lands are alarming, especially for the millions of Americans who mere months ago witnessed—and emphatically opposed—the sell-off attempt in the reconciliation package,” the letter reads.
Source New Mexico’s phone call about the letter to Lee’s office was not immediately returned Friday.
Lee is expected to schedule Pearce’s confirmation hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the “coming weeks,” Heinrich spokesperson Luis Soriano told Source. The full Senate would vote on his confirmation afterward, if the committee recommends it.
