"William Perry Pendley's views on racial inequality and social justice could prove a bigger obstacle to the Senate's confirming him as director of the Bureau of Land Management than his controversial statements on public lands.
Pendley, whom President Trump plans to nominate as BLM director, wrote a November 2017 op-ed in the Washington Examiner in which he dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement as based on "a lie that spread like cancer through inner cities endangering men and women in blue and the citizens who look to them for protection."
The op-ed centers on a controversial play based on grand jury testimony about the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, who was Black and unarmed, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's death sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, which today is leading nationwide protests demanding police reform after the choking death of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis."
Scott Streater and Jennifer Yachnin report for E&E News June 29, 2020.
SEE ALSO:
"Trump To Nominate Anti-Environment Extremist As Permanent Public Lands Chief" (HuffPost)
"He Opposed Public Lands And Wildlife Protections. Trump Gave Him A Top Environment Job" (Guardian)
