BLM Director Bob Abbey retiring

Bob Abbey, director of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, will retire at the end of May.

Abbey, appointed BLM director by President Obama in 2009, has a 34-year career of state and federal service.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said that under Abbey’s leadership there had been real and positive changes at BLM, “from the renewable energy revolution he helped lead and the oil and gas reforms he implemented to the spectacular conservation lands he has helped protect for future generations.”

Abbey called his period as BLM director the highlight of his career and said he was proud of what BLM had accomplished.

Abbey oversaw the approval of 29 large-scale renewable energy projects on public lands, including 16 solar projects, five wind farms and eight geothermal plants.

He implemented reforms to BLM’s oil and gas leasing process to improve certainty, reduce conflict and ensure that development occurred in the right places and the right ways.

Abbey also saw a significant expansion of the National Landscape Conservation System, led BLM toward more landscape-scale and partnership-driven planning and helped the agency incorporate climate change more fully into its planning.

Abbey, a native of Clarksdale, Miss., is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, and is retiring to rejoin his family full-time in Mississippi.

BLM Deputy Director Mike Pool will serve as acting director following Abbey’s retirement.

—Petroleum News