We recently received a press release from Senator Cory Gardner’s office.
Gardner Celebrates the Selection of BLM Headquarters Site in Grand Junction
Washington, D.C. – Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO), the chief architect of the plan to move the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) headquarters to Grand Junction, celebrated the announcement today that the BLM signed a lease agreement for their new headquarters at 760 Horizon Drive, Grand Junction. This office space will house the BLM Director, Deputy Director for Operations and other senior leadership and support staff.
“On behalf of the state of Colorado, I am excited to welcome the Bureau of Land Management to its new home in Grand Junction,” said Senator Gardner. “From the very beginning moving the BLM’s headquarters West has always been about strengthening the BLM’s relationship with local officials, moving the decision makers closer to the lands they oversee and the people they serve, and making better land management decisions. This commonsense move will save taxpayers money and solidify Colorado’s legacy as a responsible steward of public lands.”
Not everyone agrees with Senator Gardner’s typically sunny assessment of this Trump administration decision. In particular, it seems certain federal employees who’ve built their careers at the Bureau of Land Management — and bought their homes and raised their families near the current BLM headquarters in Washington, DC — have a generally negative view of the proposal. You can read about employee unhappiness in this High Country News story from September 20.
Here’s a short excerpt from that article:
“Did anybody take the time,” the questioner went on, “to talk to each and every one of these individuals in this room to see how the move would impact them and their family? … Y’all didn’t take anybody in this room into consideration.” He added that he has no plans to move West, questioned whether anyone in leadership had the “moral courage” to stand up to [Interior Secretary] Bernhardt, and called the move a “political thing.”
The room, which had gone serious and silent after the exchange with [acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley], erupted in loud applause…
… “I will say that the morale of the folks I know in this room is as low as I’ve ever seen it,” said one man, who added that he’s seeking a new job.
The BLM oversees 245 million acres — about one-tenth of America’s land base — and more subsurface mineral estate (700 million acres) than any other government agency in the United States. In the language of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the BLM is charged with administering public lands “on the basis of multiple use and sustained yield” of resources.
Did we mention that only 27 employees will be relocated to Grand Junction? But it appears that more than 200 additional employees will be moved out of Washington DC and scattered across the American West. Under the plan, only about 60 BLM employees will remain in Washington.
And it gets even more interesting. According to a report posted last week on the Colorado Public Radio website, BLM has signed a lease for space in a building near the Grand Junction Airport — with fellow tenants including oil and gas interests regulated by the agency. The CPR reporters’ research indicates that the new headquarters will share the building with the West Slope Oil and Gas Association, the state headquarters for Chevron, oil producer Oxy Energy, and Laramie Energy.
Dozens of former BLM top officials spoke out against the move earlier this month, saying it will deeply wound the agency’s effectiveness.
Might that be the whole idea? To hamper the oversight of our public lands, by moving the Bureau as far away from Congressional decision-making as possible?
Elaine Zielinski, who started her BLM career in Colorado forty years ago, is one of 30 retired BLM senior leaders who signed a letter to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, urging him to reconsider moving BLM’s headquarters out of Washington, D.C.
Zielinksi thinks this “dismantling” of the agency’s headquarters in unnecessary, since thousands of BLM staff members — about 97 percent of BLM’s employees — are already based outside of Washington. She believes the 3 percent in the Capital are vital to explain issues to key decision makers and give the agency a consistent, balanced presence.
Without them, “You’re setting up the BLM for failure,” she said.
But I guess we are setting up the oil and gas industry for success.