Supporter,
If you don't know the name William Perry Pendley yet, you will. He's a neoconservative lawyer who has spent his career campaigning against federal land protections — and he's our acting Bureau of Land Management director.
This longtime president of a nonprofit that advocates selling off millions of acres of federal lands —
and now overseeing 245 million acres, more than 10% of the entire U.S. landmass
— is right out of Trump central casting. And his tenure as BLM chief was just extended through the end of the year.
It's up to us to stop Trump's latest yes man from carving up and auctioning off our last wild places — not to mention sacred Native American spaces — to Big Oil and Gas. We also need to stop Pendley from being confirmed as the permanent Director of BLM in the likely situation where Trump nominates him for that position.
One piece of good news is that we know Pendley's former organization, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, inside and out (we forced one of Pendley's former colleagues to resign from the Reagan administration in disgrace!). The other is that we're getting pretty good at blocking the Trump administration in court.
But we need your help right now to do ramp up our legal teams, line up our allies in the Senate to oppose Pendley's confirmation, and do everything we can to protect public lands on Capitol Hill and in the courts.
Please, rush your monthly gift to the Sierra Club now — before Pendley starts banging For Sale signs into our most precious archaeological and cultural sites, recreation areas, and wildlife habitat.
Pendley is as anti-conservation as it comes, even by Trumpian standards. Not only has he called climate change "junk science" and Obama's Environmental Protection Agency "lawless" for its pursuit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its campaign to shutter coal plants, Pendley... well, there’s really no other way to say this:
Pendley believes public lands shouldn’t exist at all.
In a January 2016 op-ed published in the National Review, Pendley wrote, "Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold."
It's easy to see why Trump found him so perfect for the gig.
The Trump administration has already rolled out a plan that calls explicitly for selling off federal assets, shrinking national monuments, and opening millions of acres of public land to drilling and mining. So Pendley's defense of his record and his appointment — "I know how to follow orders" —
doesnt exactly put us at ease.
We're prepared to mobilize alongside our Western state allies on the ground — youth, First Nation communities, environmental organizations, local governments and others — to oppose Pendley's appointment and his plans for our public lands.
But we can't run both a grassroots AND legal operation without your support today.
Please, rush your emergency gift now to help us stop William Perry Pendley from becoming another fox in Trump's henhouse. We'll also send you our exclusive Sierra Club grocery cart shopping tote — free.
We agree with the anonymous BLM employee who told a reporter that Pendley's appointment further signals the Trump administration's plan to "destroy everything in the name of profits." But that doesn't mean we're going to let them do it. With your help, we will fight this latest attack on our air, water and precious public lands.
With determination,
Michael Brune
Executive Director
Sierra Club
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