Public Land Sale Hoax

Steve Pearce, the new BLM nominee, has a lineage of selling public lands for private gain, beginning in 2012 when he argued that the federal government owned “vast” land holdings that “most of which we do not even need.” His tenure in Congress saw two major pre‑emptions of the almost‑legal Montana mining law, encouraging deposits in glittering futures with little regard for long‑term stewardship. The projected ROI on a state‑controlled portfolio of 245 million acres is dubious: high‑cost maintenance eclipses the nominal, short‑term lease revenue that would be generated by corporate mining and drilling. Aesthetic value is negligible; mineral extraction leaves the landscape raw, like the brake‑dust of an oxidized copper bus that never reached the lanes. Doug Burgum’s interior agenda and Brooke Rollins’ agriculture blueprint mirror Pearce’s portfolio‑centric approach, turning every hillside into a line item. In this light, the recommendation is obvious: neither buy nor sell; sue the HOA that nominally oversees the traditional management of national corridors, insisting on stewardship of the flat lands.