The nominee, Kathleen Sgamma, has worked for nearly two decades on behalf of oil and gas companies in Western states.

A longtime industry representative and advocate for independent oil and gas producers in the West, Kathleen Sgamma, was tapped to head the national Bureau of Land Management. Sgamma has long chafed at federal policies that delay or even deter producers who try to navigate what she has frequently characterized as hostile policies that send companies to private lands for their product — coming at the expense of states dominated by federal land management.

Kathleen Sgamma is the president of Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, where she’s worked for nearly two decades to reduce barriers for oil and gas producers extracting from federal lands.

The Trump administration has named Kathleen Sgamma, a vocal oil and gas advocate for Western states, to head up the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which manages the use of the country's nearly 250 million acres of public lands.

President Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states. Kathleen Sgamma,

Bureau of Land Management nominee Kathleen Sgamma heads a fossil fuel industry trade group that sued the Biden administration over a landmark conservation rule.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, would oversee management of approximately 245 million acres of surface lands.

The head of a Denver-based oil and gas trade group that lobbies for expanded drilling on public lands is Republican President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Kathleen Sgamma is the president of Western Energy Alliance,