The Bureau of Land Management has named a longtime career official currently overseeing mining and oil and gas leasing in Alaska to serve as that state’s new director.
Kevin Pendergast, a certified engineer and geologist who has served as BLM’s Alaska deputy state director for resources since 2019, has been named the permanent director for the state that oversees 220 million acres of subsurface mineral estate that’s expected to play a central role in President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
Pendergast, who will start as BLM Alaska director on June 29, has more than a decade of experience working at various positions within the Interior Department, including a three-month stint in 2016 as acting deputy superintendent at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, according to his LinkedIn page.
BLM emphasized in announcing his appointment Wednesday that as Alaska director Pendergast will be primarily responsible for overseeing the agency’s “efforts of implementing the Administration’s and Secretary of the Interior’s priorities of unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.”
