Todd Ockert
Moderator
Scott Streater, E&E News reporter
Published: Tuesday, January 21, 2020
The new Bureau of Land Management California state director, Karen Mouritsen. Bureau of Land Management
Karen Mouritsen, a 27-year career federal official, starts today as director of the Bureau of Land Management's California state office responsible for managing more than 15 million acres of federal land.
Mouritsen, who previously served as director of BLM's Eastern States Office, is the first permanent California state director since 2018.
BLM California manages a vast area comprising about 15% of the Golden State's landmass. In addition to the 15.2 million acres of bureau land in California, BLM oversees 1.6 million acres in northwest Nevada. The state office also administers 47 million acres of subsurface mineral estate underlying mostly federal land in the two states.
The Trump administration has moved to allow industry to tap into the oil and natural gas underneath federal lands, including California.
BLM last month reauthorized an Obama-era plan that had been challenged in federal court that could allow increased oil drilling across south-central California (Greenwire, Dec. 12, 2019). California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the state's top attorney, as well as environmental groups, have launched a new round of lawsuits to stop it.
California also faces the annual threat of devastating wildfires and increasing pressure on BLM and other federal land managers to reduce fuel loads to mitigate the threat.
Few doubt that Mouritsen — a former petroleum engineer and attorney in the Interior Department's solicitor's office who has held numerous administrative positions at BLM, including deputy assistant director for energy, minerals and realty management — is up to the task.
"I've known and worked with Karen for a long time. She's been around Interior and BLM for many years," said Ed Shepard, president of the Public Lands Foundation, a BLM retirees organization.
"She's very experienced and will do well in California," said Shepard, who retired from BLM in 2012 after a 38-year career.
Mouritsen's move to California comes as BLM relocates its Washington, D.C.-based headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo. The relocation plan also includes moving more than 200 other positions to state offices across the West.
BLM California is expected to get about 20 new employees from the Washington office, Interior has said, with nine of those positions coming from the energy, minerals and realty management program.
A former senior BLM official who asked not to be identified said there "is no doubt that it is more challenging in today's climate" to be a senior leader at the bureau.
But the former official also said Mouritsen "has the skill set to be successful in this climate."
The former official also listed proposed changes to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, or DRECP, as arguably the biggest issue Mouritsen will face.
Interior announced in early 2018 that it was considering wholesale changes to DRECP that would open more of the area to large-scale renewable energy projects (Greenwire, Feb. 1, 2018).
Those revisions — which are expected to be controversial — were originally scheduled to be completed last year but were delayed for unknown reasons, according to a state-by-state BLM priority project list for 2020. An updated schedule has not been released.
BLM originally announced last fall that Mouritsen would replace Joe Stout, who has served as acting state director since October 2018 (E&E News PM, Oct. 9, 2019). Stout took over after former California Director Jerry Perez left BLM to become forest supervisor of the Angeles National Forest north of the Los Angeles metropolitan area (Greenwire, Oct. 16, 2018). Stout will return to his previous position as associate state director for BLM California.
A BLM spokeswoman confirmed to E&E News that Mouritsen started today as California director.
It's not clear who will replace Mouritsen in the Eastern States Office. Representatives with BLM and the Interior Department did not respond to a request for information on Eastern States Office leadership.
BLM does not regularly update its publicly available online organization chart.
Before BLM California and her previous stint as the Eastern States Office director, Mouritsen served as BLM budget officer and BLM liaison to the Interior assistant secretary for land and minerals management, according to a bureau press release last fall.
Mouritsen also served a brief stint as acting BLM Alaska director, as well as acting director of the BLM New Mexico office. She has also been acting associate district manager of BLM's Southern Nevada District Office in Las Vegas and the Medford District Office in Oregon, the bureau said.
Prior to working for BLM, Mouritsen served as an attorney adviser in Interior's Office of the Solicitor for 10 years.
A Dallas native, Mouritsen earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas, Austin's College of Engineering in 1983, as well as a Juris Doctor degree at the University of Texas, Austin, Law School in 1992.
Published: Tuesday, January 21, 2020
The new Bureau of Land Management California state director, Karen Mouritsen. Bureau of Land Management
Karen Mouritsen, a 27-year career federal official, starts today as director of the Bureau of Land Management's California state office responsible for managing more than 15 million acres of federal land.
Mouritsen, who previously served as director of BLM's Eastern States Office, is the first permanent California state director since 2018.
BLM California manages a vast area comprising about 15% of the Golden State's landmass. In addition to the 15.2 million acres of bureau land in California, BLM oversees 1.6 million acres in northwest Nevada. The state office also administers 47 million acres of subsurface mineral estate underlying mostly federal land in the two states.
The Trump administration has moved to allow industry to tap into the oil and natural gas underneath federal lands, including California.
BLM last month reauthorized an Obama-era plan that had been challenged in federal court that could allow increased oil drilling across south-central California (Greenwire, Dec. 12, 2019). California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the state's top attorney, as well as environmental groups, have launched a new round of lawsuits to stop it.
California also faces the annual threat of devastating wildfires and increasing pressure on BLM and other federal land managers to reduce fuel loads to mitigate the threat.
Few doubt that Mouritsen — a former petroleum engineer and attorney in the Interior Department's solicitor's office who has held numerous administrative positions at BLM, including deputy assistant director for energy, minerals and realty management — is up to the task.
"I've known and worked with Karen for a long time. She's been around Interior and BLM for many years," said Ed Shepard, president of the Public Lands Foundation, a BLM retirees organization.
"She's very experienced and will do well in California," said Shepard, who retired from BLM in 2012 after a 38-year career.
Mouritsen's move to California comes as BLM relocates its Washington, D.C.-based headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo. The relocation plan also includes moving more than 200 other positions to state offices across the West.
BLM California is expected to get about 20 new employees from the Washington office, Interior has said, with nine of those positions coming from the energy, minerals and realty management program.
A former senior BLM official who asked not to be identified said there "is no doubt that it is more challenging in today's climate" to be a senior leader at the bureau.
But the former official also said Mouritsen "has the skill set to be successful in this climate."
The former official also listed proposed changes to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, or DRECP, as arguably the biggest issue Mouritsen will face.
Interior announced in early 2018 that it was considering wholesale changes to DRECP that would open more of the area to large-scale renewable energy projects (Greenwire, Feb. 1, 2018).
Those revisions — which are expected to be controversial — were originally scheduled to be completed last year but were delayed for unknown reasons, according to a state-by-state BLM priority project list for 2020. An updated schedule has not been released.
BLM originally announced last fall that Mouritsen would replace Joe Stout, who has served as acting state director since October 2018 (E&E News PM, Oct. 9, 2019). Stout took over after former California Director Jerry Perez left BLM to become forest supervisor of the Angeles National Forest north of the Los Angeles metropolitan area (Greenwire, Oct. 16, 2018). Stout will return to his previous position as associate state director for BLM California.
A BLM spokeswoman confirmed to E&E News that Mouritsen started today as California director.
It's not clear who will replace Mouritsen in the Eastern States Office. Representatives with BLM and the Interior Department did not respond to a request for information on Eastern States Office leadership.
BLM does not regularly update its publicly available online organization chart.
Before BLM California and her previous stint as the Eastern States Office director, Mouritsen served as BLM budget officer and BLM liaison to the Interior assistant secretary for land and minerals management, according to a bureau press release last fall.
Mouritsen also served a brief stint as acting BLM Alaska director, as well as acting director of the BLM New Mexico office. She has also been acting associate district manager of BLM's Southern Nevada District Office in Las Vegas and the Medford District Office in Oregon, the bureau said.
Prior to working for BLM, Mouritsen served as an attorney adviser in Interior's Office of the Solicitor for 10 years.
A Dallas native, Mouritsen earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas, Austin's College of Engineering in 1983, as well as a Juris Doctor degree at the University of Texas, Austin, Law School in 1992.
