The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the management of a quarter-billion acres of public lands on Monday, as the administration pushes ahead with more mining and drilling while reversing conservation plans. Former congressman Steve Pearce will lead the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management following Monday’s 46-43 confirmation vote. Pearce’s background as a Republican Party leader in New Mexico known for supporting public land leasing and industry made him a contentious pick. Democrats and environmental groups were strongly opposed. He attempted to assuage any fears during his February confirmation hearing by noting that he grew up on a family farm where conserving the land and water was a necessity. “The security and economic health of the country, especially the western states, rests squarely with the BLM,” he testified. “We can and must balance the different uses of public land. Local economies and future generations depend on us doing our job right.” The land bureau has about 10,000 employees who manage roughly 10% of land in the U.S. It’s also responsible for 700 million acres (283 million hectares) of underground minerals, including major reserves of oil, natural gas and coal. Trump and Republicans in Congress have been unraveling regulations from former President Joe Biden’s administration that are viewed as burdensome to industry. They have opened millions of acres of public lands for mining and drilling and canceled land plans and conservation strategies formulated under Biden. The Democratic Party of New Mexico has called Pearce “an outright enemy of public lands,” suggesting he’s beholden to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay