Updated at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.
President Donald Trump has named Kathleen Sgamma, head of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, to be the next director of the Bureau of Land Management, according to the Congressional Record.
The White House or Trump has yet to comment on the nomination.
A frequent witness on Capitol Hill, Sgamma has been a strong advocate for the oil and natural gas industry, leading a group that represents independent oil and natural companies in the West, and oil and gas leasing on public lands.
It would be a big change from Tracy Stone-Manning, former President Joe Biden’s BLM team lead, who put conservation on equal fitting as other uses, such as leasing and grazing. It was a position that Sgamma and Republicans in Congress fought against.
However, it is inline with Trump’s desire to “unleash” American energy. The president said America would “drill, baby, drill” during his inaugural address.
During a recent interview with CPR News on Trump’s energy actions, Sgamma said she saw the administration’s agenda as part of getting back to regular order.
“Moving forward with lease sales, moving forward with permitting on federal lands, moving forward with completing environmental analysis,” she said. “We would expect the Trump administration to move forward and get those leases issued and development proceeding on them.”
Sgamma added that Trump’s moves would “counterbalance the swing in one direction by the Biden Administration” into renewables such as wind and solar.
“They were promoted, over promoted, during the Biden Administration,” she said.
The fossil fuel advocate also expressed concern that renewable energy could destabilize the nation’s electric grid. “If you take out base load coal and natural gas power and replace it with intermittent solar and wind, you can get a situation of grid instability,” she said. “That is the situation we see particularly in the Midwest, northeast, and the West Coast.”
This is the second time Trump has looked to a Coloradan to lead the agency within the Interior Department that is responsible for more than 247 million acres of public lands. During his first term, he named William Perry Pendley to lead the agency, but Pendley withdrew when it became clear that he could not get enough support for his confirmation.
Perry Pendley wrote the Project 2025 section on the Department of the Interior, with Sgamma named as a contributor.
Environmentalist backlash was swift
Sgamma’s nomination has already drawn the ire of conservation and public lands groups.
Rachel Hamby, policy director of the Center for Western Priorities, described Gamma as an inappropriate choice to run the BLM. “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,” she said in a statement.
Taylor McKinnon, southwestern director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Sgamma would be a disaster for public lands.
“It’s hard to imagine how Trump could give a bigger middle finger to America’s public lands,” Mckinnon said in a statement. “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.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated with statements from Kathleen Sgamma and environmentalists.
