William Perry Pendley, the attorney now running the Bureau of Land Management, oversees federal coal leases despite pushing for a fire sale of coal leases more than three decades ago that led to a federal probe in which he was referred for possible criminal prosecution.
Pendley and another Interior appointee ate an infamous $494 dinner – the equivalent of $1,343 today – at a Washington, D.C., restaurant in March 1982 with their wives and two coal industry attorneys on the same day that they helped change the bidding system for the coal leases. One of the bidders for the coal leases paid for the dinner.
Twelve U.S. senators want to end Pendley’s job as acting director, citing his work to expand oil and gas development on public land and support for selling off public land.