Trump nominates Big Oil lobbyist Kathleen Sgamma to head Bureau of Land Management
Washington, D.C. - If you thought it couldn't get any worse with already terrible Trump appointments to key cabinet positions, it just did.
Trump has nominated Kathleen Sgamma as director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), according to an update on Congress.gov. Sgamma currently serves as the president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade group that has sought to greatly increase fossil fuel drilling on public lands and slash protections across landscapes. She was a Project 2025 author on energy policy.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sgamma will oversee an agency whose mission is “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.”
The Bureau of Land Management manages 245 million acres of public lands, 10% of the nation’s land area, and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, including oil and gas reserves.
Sgamma’s nomination is a “clear indication that the Trump administration is moving full speed ahead with its polluter--friendly drill, baby, drill’ agenda,” according to a statement from the Sierra Club.
U.S. crude oil production forecasted to reach new record high under Trump
The irony of the “drill, baby, drill” mantra is that U.S. crude oil production actually reached record highs under the Biden Administration — and the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) forecasts that U.S. crude oil production will rise to a new high under the second Trump administration: https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/index.php.
U.S. crude oil production (million barrels per day) was 12.0 in 2022, 12.9 in 2023 and 13.2 in 2024. The EIR forecasts that there will be a new record high of 13.5 million barrels per day in 2025 under Trump.
In other words, the U.S. has produced more crude oil over the past three years than any other country in history - and this year U.S. oil production under Trump is expected to reach a new record high in oil production unmatched by any other country as the climate crisis intensifies, as evidenced by the apocalyptic fires in Southern California this year.
The Sierra Club noted that Trump “has had a fraught relationship with BLM dating back to his first term in the White House. BLM was without a permanent director throughout Trump’s first term. Its final Trump-appointed leader, William Perry Pendley, was installed as acting director when it became clear the U.S. Senate would not confirm him as the permanent head.”
Trump also attempted to move the headquarters of the agency out of the nation’s capital and to Grand Junction, a city of about 65,000 residents in rural Colorado. The move was reversed by President Joe Biden, according to the Club.
"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. “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.’ Our public lands make this country great and belong to all Americans, not just billionaire oil executives.”
“This nomination makes it clear who Donald Trump thinks should have first dibs on our public lands, and it’s not the American people,” Manuel stated.
BLM will be a servant to the fossil fuel industry under Sgamma
Olivia Juarez, Public Land Program Director of GreenLatinos, also slammed Trump’s nomination of Sgamma as BLM director, saying the agency “will be nothing more than a servant to the oil and gas industry” under Sgamma’s helm.
"If there was one federal agency that could single handedly destroy or defend our chance at having a thriving future, it would be the Bureau of Land Management,” Juarez said in a statement. “This agency administers more than 245 million acres of public lands that can and should be managed to bring a full stop to the deadly heat, drought, fires and storms which disproportionately harm Latino communities across the U.S. and territories. But under the mis-leadership of Kathleen Sgamma, the Bureau of Land Management will be nothing more than a servant to the oil and gas industry. To be clear, billionaire oil and gas executives are behind federal attempts to pollute and sacrifice places where our communities recreate, preserve our histories, and honor our traditions. Kathleen Sgamma is their advisor and will bend over backwards for polluting industries."
In a similar vein, Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said, “Kathleen Sgamma would be an unmitigated disaster for our public lands as head of Trump’s Bureau of Land Management.”
“She’s a fossil fuel industry hack with breathtaking disdain for environmental laws, endangered species, recreation or anything other than industry profits. 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. If Sgamma’s confirmed, we’ll fight her attacks on public lands and wildlife at every step,” said McKimmon.
“For nearly two decades as president of oil industry trade association Western Energy Alliance, Sgamma has deployed a near-ubiquitous campaign of administrative and legal attacks on federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, to maximize fossil fuel industry access to federal public land and prevent or undermine protections for land, clean air and water, and endangered species,” McKinnon concluded.
Drew Caputo, Vice President of Litigation at Earthjustice, also weighed in on Sgamma’s appointment: "Picking an advocate for the oil and gas industry like Sgamma shows just how little this administration values good stewardship of our nation’s public lands.”
Big Oil spent $450 million to influence Trump and Republicans during 2024
To understand why Trump has nominated a fossil fuel lobbyist to head BLM, one only needs to follow the money.
Big Oil spent $450 million to influence Donald Trump and Republicans throughout the 2024 election cycle and 118th Congress, a new analysis by Climate Power revealed. This funding includes direct donations, lobbying, and advertising to support Republicans and their policies.
“The oil and gas industry spent a whopping $450 million to influence Donald Trump and Republicans,” said Alex Witt, Climate Power senior advisor for oil and gas, in a statement. “That investment is already paying off.”
“Donald Trump’s day-one actions have shown where his loyalties lie – executing the industry’s wishlist at the expense of working Americans. Trump’s energy agenda will raise costs for families, strip away energy choices, dirty our air and water, and put 400,000 new clean energy jobs at risk,” Wittman concluded.
In the 2024 election cycle, oil and gas donors spent:
- $96 million in direct donations to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and super PACs between January 2023 and November 2024
- $243 million lobbying Congress
- Nearly $80 million on advertising supporting Trump and other Republicans or policy positions supported by their campaigns
- More than $25 million to Republican down-ballot races, including $16.3 million to Republican House races, $8.2 million to Republican Senate races, and $559,049 to Republican Governors.
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1 comment
No surprise here. Trump doesn't care about polutants. What Trump may find is that promotiong oil and gas drillings works against is sugardaddy's (Musk's) plan to sell Teslas to every American over the next two decades. My bet is Musk wins this agrument, after all he's sitting in the oval office telling Trump he's only there because of him. Trump is is puppet.
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