By Derek Draplin | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has selected the head of a Denver-based oil and gas trade group to be the Bureau of Land Management’s next director.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kathleen Sgamma would replace Tracy Stone-Manning as director of the agency tasked with managing natural resources, wildlife and recreation on 245 million acres of public land, mostly in Western states.
Sgamma told The Center Square she cannot comment on her nomination, but said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that she’s honored to serve and “help unleash American energy.”
The Colorado resident is currently head of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents oil and gas companies in nine states, and is headquartered in Denver. The group was part of a lawsuit last summer challenging the Biden administration’s changes to federal onshore oil and gas leasing rules. She said at the time the rule “prices small producers out of the market and off public lands,” The Center Square reported.
Sgamma’s nomination is the latest move by the White House to align federal agencies with the administration’s pledge to increase energy and natural resource development on public lands.
“I will declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said during his Inauguration Day speech last month. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
Western Energy Alliance also praised other Trump nominations for energy-related posts, including Doug Burgum for secretary of the Department of the Interior, which oversees the BLM, and Chris Wright as secretary of the Department of Energy. Wright is also from Colorado and was CEO of Liberty Energy, based in Denver.
Sgamma’s nomination is opposed by environmental advocacy groups like the Center for Western Priorities, based in Denver, which called her “an inappropriate choice.”
“This appointment will hand the keys to our public lands over to oil and gas companies,” the center said in a statement. “Sgamma will seek to lease every inch of our lands for drilling, no matter their recreational, scenic, ecological or cultural value. Her appointment is a direct threat to Western communities and wildlife that depend on healthy landscapes, clean air and clean water.”
U.S Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources, called Sgamma “a fantastic selection.”
“I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with her on several efforts to responsibly manage our lands while also allowing our oil & gas industry to thrive and bring back American energy dominance,” she said in a tweet. “This is a major win for Coloradans, and I look forward to supporting her and her team in any way possible.”
In Colorado, the BLM manages 8.3 million acres of land, as well as 27 million acres of federal mineral rights. According to the agency, activities on BLM-managed public lands accounted for $10.8 billion to the state’s economy in 2023.
The agency’s headquarters was moved from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction under the first Trump administration, which argued it would save taxpayer dollars, but then moved back to D.C. after Biden took office.
Two other Coloradans served during Trump’s first administration: William Perry Pendley as acting BLM director and David Bernhardt as Interior secretary.
In other White House news Wednesday, Trump announced he is nominating Brian Nesvik of Wyoming as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nesvik was appointed by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming as director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in 2019. Nesvik retired in 2024 after 30 years with the agency.