The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Steve Pearce, a former oilman and congressman from New Mexico, to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
* Pearce was one of 49 nominees for federal positions that were confirmed in one Senate bloc vote of 46-43.
* The BLM, a division of the Interior Department, manages more than a tenth of the nation’s surface area.
* Pearce is the former owner of an oilfield services company and supports President Donald Trump’s goal to increase fossil fuel development on public lands.
* Democrats and conservation groups opposed Pearce’s nomination in part because he has advocated for sales of federal lands to pay down the deficit.
* Oil and gas trade group Western Energy Alliance praised Pearce’s confirmation, calling him a champion of multiple uses of public lands, including oil and gas drilling and protecting landscapes.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)