The BLM’s new digs are right next door to its fossil fuel friends

This summer, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt decided to break up the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), splitting up a number of key programs and scattering those functions across BLM offices in the West. It was a thinly veiled political move meant to force out hundreds of career staffers unwilling to uproot their families and lives to head to parts unknown. Included was a decision to transfer BLM’s political leadership from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado. Now there’s been another eyebrow-raising turn in this controversial relocation. The BLM will share a building with a number of oil and gas companies, including Chevron and Occidental, making ties with fossil fuel allies that depend on easy access to federal lands that much tighter. The strategy seems clear: Clean house of pesky experienced staffers and cozy up to industry pals—a recipe for disaster when it comes to protecting public lands from the oil and gas industry.