WASHINGTON— More than 80 groups today urged the leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to oppose President Trump’s second nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Steve Pearce has supported selling the nation’s public lands and backed Trump’s false claims of elections fraud.

In a letter to Senate leaders, the groups warned that Pearce’s political career has been based on absolute disdain for the 245 million acres of public lands he has now been nominated to administer.

“Pearce has demonstrated nothing but contempt for our public lands and the plants and animals who depend on them. If confirmed he would sell off public lands to private corporations in a heartbeat and condemn wildlife to extinction,” said Ashley C. Nunes, a public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Pearce might be the worst possible person to manage our nation’s natural heritage.”

The initial Senate hearing to confirm Pearce, who was nominated in November, has yet to be scheduled.

“If confirmed, Pearce will severely undermine protections for recreation and cultural resources, air and water, and the nation’s most imperiled wildlife — if he does not seek to outright sell off our shared natural heritage first,” stated today’s letter.

The groups point out Pearce’s history of encouraging vigilante activity, including the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The revoked grazing permits of Dwight and Steven Hammond, the ranchers whose arson convictions sparked that occupation, are currently under review and the decision to reissue could fall to Pearce if confirmed.

Trump’s prior nominee, Kathleen Sgamma, withdrew her nomination after her criticism of the president’s response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot surfaced. Following the attack, Pearce tweeted in a post that has since been deleted that Trump “will be our President FOREVER.”

Today’s letter warns that Pearce will be an “unwavering part of President Trump’s anti-environmental and anti-democratic agenda.”