9/16: Trump's Barbarian at the Gates of the National Forests

 9/16/2020 

Putting William Perry Pendley in charge of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM, not to be confused with Black Lives Matter) is like leading the fox to the henhouse, opening the door, and saying "go get 'em."

Pendley, the Acting Deputy Director for Policy and Programs,” is the author of two books that argue against the U.S. owning or even managing any land at all. They're entitled “War on the West: Government Tyranny on America’s Frontier” and “Warriors for the West: Fighting Bureaucrats, Radical Groups, and Liberal Judges on America’s Frontier.” He has compared climate change to unicorns.

“He’s spent most of his adult life arguing against the principles upon which our federal land management policy is based," says Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia. "He’s called for the sale of the public lands [that] ... the BLM is responsible for ... He’s denigrated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act."

Pendley has been acting head of the BLM only because he never went up for a confirmation vote. It was obvious he'd lose. Instead, he has had his status as acting head renewed repeatedly by the Secretary of the Interior. Two lawsuits are in the works to kick him out of the job.

"He cannot be a good steward of the public domain if he does not believe the public should have domain," says Manchin. "He rejects the laws designed to preserve and protect it.”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/516576-senate-dems-ask-white-house-to-fire-controversial-head-of-public?fbclid=IwAR1-gxNyCRDAewyhVfBIMOzL4pS0iqxV3a4FFjcG4rVnd_eakW2MB52DRcM