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Last week, in his first day on the job, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued six secretarial orders, the most detailed of which directs the Interior department to “review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands,” a huge category that includes millions of acres of American lands protected by previous presidents as national monuments.
In a new blog post from the Center for Western Priorities, Policy Director Rachael Hamby explains that President Donald Trump remains fixated on undoing anything done by former President Biden, including national monument designations, even though erasing them won’t bring down Americans’ energy bills.
Some of the monuments on Trump's political hit list include Bears Ears in Utah, Camp Hale–Continental Divide in Colorado, Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, and the recently designated Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands national monuments in California.
Hamby notes that if Trump or Burgum move to reduce or erase national monuments that don’t contain significant oil and gas or mineral resources, it will confirm that the goal of the administration's monument review was never to bring down energy costs for Americans, but to score political points and prop up extractive industries at the expense of Western communities and the healthy landscapes, clean water, and clean air that we all depend on.
Oil and gas lobbyist nominated to lead Bureau of Land Management
President Donald Trump nominated Kathleen Sgamma, a professional oil and gas lobbyist, to run the Bureau of Land Management. Sgamma has worked for nearly 20 years on behalf of oil and gas companies to help them strip away protections for public lands in the West. She also wrote the oil and gas section of Project 2025.
“This appointment will hand the keys to our public lands over to oil and gas companies,” said Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby. “Sgamma will seek to lease every inch of our lands for drilling, no matter their recreational, scenic, ecological, or cultural value. Her appointment is a direct threat to Western communities and wildlife that depend on healthy landscapes, clean air, and clean water.”
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We’re talking about the ecosystem as a whole, our public lands being public, the water staying clean, and our kids being able to ride the same bike trail that I rode. Someone that doesn’t agree with that is, like, really far out there. I haven’t met them.”
