Governor hopes to axe public lands boss

BILLINGS, MONT.» Montana’s Democratic governor asked a federal judge Thursday to take swift action to remove the Trump administration’s chief steward of public lands, as the former industry attorney hangs on to the post despite the White House saying Saturday that his nomination would be withdrawn.

Attorneys for Gov. Steve Bullock said William Perry Pendley’s continuing leadership of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management undermines conservation efforts and is illegal because Pendley never had a Senate confirmation hearing.

The bureau oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in the U.S. West, and regulates activities ranging from mining and oil extraction to livestock grazing and recreation.

The Associated Press reported this week that Pendley remains in charge of the bureau under an arrangement that Pendley set up months ago.

In a May 22 order, Pendley made his own position, deputy director, the bureau’s top post while the director’s office is vacant.

Since establishing that succession order, Pendley has approved two sweeping land resource management plans that would open 95% of federal land in Montana to oil and gas development, attorneys for Bullock said in Thursday’s request for U.S. District Judge Brian Morris to expedite a July lawsuit filed by the governor.

“William Perry Pendley is breaking the law, and at stake are over 27 million acres of public lands in Montana,” Bullock said in a statement.

Officials with the Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, said the governor’s lawsuit was “nonsense” and a waste of taxpayer resources.