“President Trump’s decision to pull the nomination of William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management has raised questions about BLM leadership and why the president made the decision to walk away from the controversial nominee.
On Saturday the White House confirmed that the Pendley nomination was being withdrawn (Greenwire, Aug. 15). But an Interior Department official also confirmed Saturday that Pendley will continue to perform the duties of BLM director under the arrangement Interior Secretary David Bernhardt put into place last year. Pendley is the bureau’s deputy director of policy and programs while also “exercising the authority of director.”
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project filed the first lawsuit challenging the designation in May (Greenwire, May 11).”
