William Perry Pendley

William Perry Pendley is an American conservative activist, commentator, and government official, currently serving as the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering public lands.

William Perry Pendley
Director of the Bureau of Land Management
Acting
Assumed office
July 2019
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byBrian Steed (acting)
Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management for Policy and Programs
Assumed office
July 2019
Personal details
Born
William Perry Pendley

(1945-04-03) April 3, 1945
Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.
Alma materGeorge Washington University (BA, MA)
University of Wyoming (J.D.)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
RankCaptain

Pendley was appointed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as a deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management in July 2019. He was elevated to acting director less than a month afterward.[1] Pendley is one of a number of high-ranking acting officials carrying out official duties in the Trump administration who have not been confirmed by the Senate.[2] No BLM director has been confirmed by the Senate during Trump's presidency.[3]

Early life and education

Pendley is a native of Cheyenne, Wyoming.[4]

Pendley received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in economics and political science from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Wyoming College of Law.[4] He was a captain in the United States Marine Corps.[4]

Career

During the Reagan administration, Pendley was a deputy interior secretary for energy and minerals under James G. Watt.[5] Pendley was reassigned in 1984 when a federal commission faulted him, along with other high-ranking officials, in the underpricing of coal-mining leases in the Powder River Basin, the largest such federal sale in history.[6]

Prior to joining the Department of the Interior, Pendley worked as a Legislative Assistant to former Wyoming Senator Clifford Hansen, and as Minority Counsel to the United States House Committee on Mines and Mining of the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs.[7]

Pendley is formerly a longtime president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative Colorado-based group that advocates for selling off federal land in the West.[8][2][1] He has written several books opposing government regulation of Western lands.[5]

He has "publicly sympathized with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy,"[9] the sovereign citizen movement leader who has said to his supporters that "We definitely don't recognize [the BLM director's] jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power or policing power in any way," and in interviews used the language of that movement, thereby gaining the support of members of the Oath Keepers, the White Mountain Militia and the Praetorian Guard militias.[10]

Pendley has sued against the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and has called the science of climate change "junk science".[1] In a July 2017 speech to conservative activists, he joked about the killing of endangered species.[11]

Trump administration

After Pendley's appointments to deputy director and then acting director of the Bureau of Land Management in 2019, he said would not pursue mass land sales.[12] He released a list of nearly five dozen former clients, including oil, mining and agriculture interests, that he would recuse himself from decisions on for a year or two.[13]

Opponents of Pendley's appointment include the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the CEO of the Patagonia clothing company, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Sen. Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico.[14][15][16][9] His supporters include Sen. Steve Daines, Republican of Montana.[17]

In the Trump administration, Pendley has been overseeing the relocation of Bureau of Land Management jobs out of Washington, D.C., to Western states. Pendley said that he would prefer to relocate to Grand Junction, Colorado, but his own job was one of 61 identified as needing to be kept in Washington.[18] Congress rejected funding for the relocations, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, the Democratic chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, said that Congress would investigate whether the plan was appropriate.[19][15] In December 2019, Pendley wrote that nearly two-thirds of the 153 employees told to move out of Washington had agreed to relocate.[20]

Pendley said the biggest threat to U.S. public lands is wild horses and burros "causing havoc".[21]

On December 30, 2019, 91 groups with connections to public lands sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt demanding that Pendley resign or be removed from office for alleged conflict of interest. The Interior Department called the groups who signed the letter "environmental extremists."[22] The day afterward, Bernhardt acted to extend Pendley's tenure through April 2020.[3]

Bernardt has repeatedly issued orders extending Pendley's tenure in an acting capacity, bypassing a Senate confirmation process. In May 2020, two activist groups, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project, sued over Bernhardt's ongoing appointments of Pendley to run the BLM and David Vela to lead the National Park Service. In June 2020, an unwritten order by Bernhardt extended Pendley's acting appointment indefinitely.[23]

Personal life

Pendley and his wife live in Evergreen, Colorado, and he also rents an apartment in Washington, D.C.[18][24]

See also

References
  1. Aug. 8, Chris D'Angelo; Now, 2019 Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate (2019-08-08). "Land transfer advocate and longtime agency combatant now leads BLM". High Country News. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  2. Andrew Kaczynski; Paul LeBlanc; Nathan McDermott. "Senior Interior official denied there was an ozone hole and compared undocumented immigrants to cancer". CNN. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  3. Mufson, Steven. "Interior secretary extends the tenure of federal lands chief — without a presidential nomination". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  4. "William Perry Pendley". www.blm.gov. 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  5. Mufson, Steven (July 31, 2019). "Trump's pick for managing federal lands doesn't believe the government should have any". The Washington Post.
  6. Shabecoff, Philip (1984-02-09). "Report Finds Interior Department Mismanaged Coal Lease Program". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  7. "Secretary Watt Names Acting Head Of New Minerals Management Service | Indian Affairs". www.bia.gov. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  8. "MSLF -- Staff". web.archive.org. 2000-10-29. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  9. Fahys, Judy (2020-01-03). "Controversial BLM Chief Pendley's Tenure Extended Again Without Nomination, Despite Protests". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  10. Henandez, Daniel (April 3, 2014). "Federal rangers face off against armed protesters in Nevada 'range war'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  11. Tobias, Jimmy (May 20, 2020). "He opposed public lands and wildlife protections. Trump gave him a top environment job". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  12. "EXCLUSIVE: 'Sagebrush rebel' William Perry Pendley embraces role heading BLM". The Washington Times. August 8, 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  13. Doyle, Michael. "INTERIOR: BLM honcho reveals long recusal list". Energy and Environment News. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  14. "Patagonia CEO: Congress Needs to Fire William Perry Pendley From BLM". Men's Journal. 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  15. "INTERIOR: Will Trump finally nominate Pendley to lead BLM?". Energy and Environment News. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  16. "Sierra Club: Time for Acting BLM Director Pendley to Go". Sierra Club. 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  17. "INTERIOR: Daines signals support for Pendley to stay at BLM". Energy and Environment News. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  18. WEBB, DENNIS. "Acting director of BLM says he'd like to live in Grand Junction". The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  19. Kim, Caitlyn. "Congressional Watchdogs Are Investigating The BLM's Move Out West As The Relocation Looms". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  20. Verlee, Megan. "BLM Head Honcho Says About 100 Employees Have Agreed To Move West". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  21. D’Angelo, Alex; Kaufmann, Chris (2019-10-11). "BLM head: 'What I thought, what I wrote, what I did in the past is irrelevant.'". High Country News. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  22. Rebecca Beitsch (Dec 30, 2019). "Coalition of 91 groups asks for resignation or removal of BLM chief". The Hill.
  23. Dennis.Webb@gjsentinel.com, DENNIS WEBB. "Pendley stays on as Bureau of Land Management head". The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  24. "Acting BLM director willing to move from DC to western Colorado". FOX31 Denver. 2019-11-09. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
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