FORT COLLINS, Colo. William Perry Pendley, the controversial acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, told a room full of journalists on Friday that his opinions on climate change and immigrants are irrelevant to his job overseeing 245 million acres of public land .

Speaking on a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, Pendley, a conservative lawyer who has spent his career fighting federal land protections and environmental regulation, sparred repeatedly with reporters.

He refused to comment about his past statements that cast doubt on basic climate science and compared immigrants to a cancer. He also repeatedly responded to questions by saying, I disagree with your premise.

As recently as February, Pendley compared the climate crisis to a unicorn because neither exists.

Asked to clarify his position on Friday, he deferred to his boss, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has said he hasnt lost sleep over soaring atmospheric carbon dioxide and blamed Congress for his own inaction on the climate . Bernhardt had been scheduled to appear at the conference but canceled.