Pendley touts a 17-page recusal list, detailing over 50 conflicts of interest and some 57 entities that he should be ethically dismissed from working on. In total, there are few, if any, decisions or policies in front of the BLM that Pendley wouldn’t be recused from working on. 

Strikingly excluded from his recusal list was the Northwest Mining Association, despite Pendley’s connection to their previous lawsuit against the agency he now heads. 

Pendley is also still the attorney for three Utah counties defending the Trump administration’s illegal move to shrink the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — one of which the BLM recently announced it would begin leasing land to oil and gas interests. 

The Acting Director is also slated to receive a lifelong payment from his former employer, the Mountain States Legal Foundation — a litigation group that regularly opposes public lands and has sued Interior at least 40 times. 

Remember when Interior tried to offer oil and gas leases in the sacred Badger-Two Medicine Wilderness Area in Montana? Well, Pendley actually represented Solenex, the group that holds the now-canceled leases. 

What else?

• Pendley has cited wild horses as an existential threat, representing legal clients in three cases, with only one previous client listed on his recusal list.
• Pendley’s recusal list includes at least eight entities or individuals representing oil, gas, and industry interests.  
• His recusal list also boasts at least four individuals that have been involved in litigation against the federal government over lands rights and access issues. 

The worst part? William Pendley puts the responsibility of managing his ridiculous recusals list on the shoulders of his staff. It’s unclear what exactly he can accomplish with so many conflicts of interest, without being totally and clearly unethical. 

Pendley is more conflicted than his conflict-ridden boss Interior Secretary Bernhardt and cannot be trusted to manage America’s public lands.