December 20, 2025 - The Interior Department confirmed Friday that Leslie Beyer, who has led the agency’s energy programs on public lands and waters since her Senate confirmation in September, has left the agency.

Beyer served as assistant secretary for land and minerals management, one of Interior’s most critical leadership positions. The role oversees all of Interior’s energy and mining offices, including the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Leslie Beyer, the former assistant Interior secretary for land and minerals management, during her April confirmation hearing. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

The position will now be filled temporarily by Lanny Erdos, the department’s director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

Interior did not provide a reason for Beyer’s abrupt exit, but said in a statement that the agency wished “her every success as she embarks on new opportunities” and spends “more time with her family and school age children.”

Beyer’s departure was first publicized in an Interior secretarial order posted online Friday that named Erdos as the acting assistant secretary.

Before joining the Trump administration, Beyer worked for several energy companies and was the head of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, an oil and gas trade association in Houston.

“We are deeply grateful for the hard work and expertise Leslie Beyer brought to Interior during our successful first year,” the department said in its statement to POLITICO’s E&E News, nodding to the Trump administration’s push to bolster fossil fuel development.

“The Department of the Interior has unleashed American energy potential, tripling coal leasing benchmarks, approving fifty-six percent more oil and gas permits compared to this period during the last administration, and restored access to Alaska’s vast reserves,” the statement said. “Through bold leadership by President Trump, we have reformed and streamlined processes, delivered record revenues, lowered energy costs for families, and created thousands of jobs across the country.”

Erdos is a former coal company executive and was a regulator at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. He also served as OSMRE director during the first Trump administration.