“President Donald Trump on Friday said he plans to nominate William Perry Pendley, a controversial figure who would become Trump’s first head of the agency managing one-tenth of the nation’s land mass and vast amounts of underground oil, gas and minerals.
Pendley’s leadership of the bureau is currently under challenge by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a pro-watchdog and whistleblower legal group that has taken on the Trump administration. The group filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department over the temporary authority the department has repeatedly conferred on Pendley and his counterpart leading the National Park Service. The Justice Department has not yet responded to the lawsuit.”
