Colorado oil and gas advocate withdraws as nominee to lead Bureau of Land Management after her anti-Trump memo surfaces

Kathleen Sgamma, the head of the Western Energy Alliance oil and gas trade group, has withdrawn her nomination to run the Bureau of Land Management after a four-year old memo criticizing President Donald Trump for spreading misinformation that incited the Jan. 6 riots resurfaced this week.

Sgamma was nominated by Trump to lead the BLM and was scheduled to begin the confirmation process Thursday morning.

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources committee, said he was informed early Thursday by the White House that Sgamma had withdrawn her name from consideration.

A source close to the confirmation said the memo played a role in Sgamma’s decision to remove herself from consideration for the BLM post

A reply to an email sent to Sgamma requesting comment early Thursday said she was in Washington for her confirmation hearing.

Sgamma, who lives in Denver, has led the Western Energy Alliance since 2006, advocating for oil and gas producers amid calls for cleaner energy and better protection of natural landscapes. Sgamma was an outspoken critic of former President Joe Biden’s increased regulation of fossil fuels. 

In the memo sent to alliance members on on Jan. 7, 2021, a day after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, she said she was “disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it.”

The memo was surfaced this week by the watchdog reporting project Documented.

“I’m disgusted that he discredited all the good work he did reorienting the judiciary back toward respect of the rule of law and construction by dishonoring the vote of the people and the rulings of those very same judges on his numerous challenges,” she wrote. “I’m disheartened he besmirched his smart, well-intentioned people in the agencies who did such good work on important policies that advance the crucial mission of making life-sustaining, affordable energy accessible to all Americans, no matter their race, gender or political orientation.”

The energy alliance led by Sgamma sued to overturn BLM oil and gas leasing rules

The Western Energy Alliance joined several other states last year in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new BLM leasing rules that increased costs for companies that drilled for oil and gas on federal land. The BLM manages 245 million surface acres and 700 million acres of underground minerals across the country, balancing energy production, livestock grazing and timber harvesting with protection of recreational access and wildlife habitat. 

In Colorado the agency manages 8.3 million acres of public lands and 27 million acres of mineral estate with programs that generate $9 billion in economic activity. The Biden administration in 2023 required the BLM to weigh land conservation alongside energy production, mining and recreation in its management plans, which challenged energy producers. 

Sgamma in January celebrated Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which increased energy exploration and production on federal land. Sgamma, in a statement, said the order reduced “regulatory damage” by the Biden administration. 

Sgamma also authored the energy section of the 900-page Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership” plan, with her chapter titled “Restoring American Energy Dominance.” In that plan, Sgamma called for rolling back Biden regulations and restoring oil and gas leases in Alaska, Wyoming and Montana, where leases had been suspended. 

On Thursday the Department of Interior announced the BLM was cancelling planned environmental impact statements — the most exhaustive reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act — for 3,224 oil and gas leases sold to producers across 3.5 million acres in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The BLM in January said it was launching the environmental analyses following lawsuits by WildEarth Guardians and other environmental groups challenging leasing decisions in the seven states between 2020 and 2024.

“The department and Bureau of Land Management remain committed to responsibly developing energy on public lands,” reads the April 10 announcement. 

This is not the first time Trump tapped a Coloradan to head the BLM. And it’s not the first time that nominee has not taken the reins at the agency. Trump in 2020 said he intended to nominate Evergreen attorney William Perry Pendley — who supports the federal government selling some parcels of public land — and Pendley served as acting director for more than a year but was never confirmed. 

Sgamma’s withdrawal lands as oil prices collapse to a four-year low as Trump’s on-again, off-again trade policies punish oil-producing economies in China and India. Crude prices on Thursday fell to the lowest level since 2021 as fears of recession and oversupply resonate in the ongoing trade war.