Acting director of federal land management agency said Founding Fathers intended all public land to be sold - Entrepreneur Generations

William Pendley

William Pendley, the acting director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is under scrutiny for a history of controversial views about public lands, the environment and other issues. Before Pendley was appointed to the post in July, he was a "conservative activist, commentator, lawyer and served as the longtime president of the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation," Andrew Kaczynski, Paul LeBlanc and Nathan McDermott report for CNN. Trump has not nominated a permanent director for the agency since taking office in 2017.

"The BLM manages 244 million acres of federal lands in the United States -- one out of every 10 acres of land in the country -- along with 30% of the nation's minerals. As acting director of the BLM, Perry wields significant authority over the leasing and use of land for mining, recreation, and oil and gas exploration and development along with maintaining environmental protections for federal lands," CNN reports. "The agency is currently taking steps to move its headquarters and employees out west."

In a 2016 National Review article, Pendley opined that there shouldn't be any public lands. "The Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold," Pendley wrote. "Westerners know that only getting title to much of the land in the West will bring real change."

In a 1992 speech to the Heritage Foundation, Pendley declared that the news media was pushing a false narrative about the environment, CNN reports: "Despite the total absence of credible scientific evidence, the media is convinced and is attempting to convince us that we have global warming, an ozone hole and acid rain and that it is all man's fault."

His dim view of environmentalism seems unchanged. "Speaking on 'The Americhicks' podcast earlier this year, Pendley said environmentalists were 'preaching fear' about climate change and claimed 'global cooling' was a widespread concern 'just a couple of years ago,'" CNN reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2VzKrBt Acting director of federal land management agency said Founding Fathers intended all public land to be sold - Entrepreneur Generations

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