Daines Urges Senate to Reject Haaland for Interior Secretary
Montana Senator Steve Daines, along with several Senators from other western states’, urged the Senate to reject Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) as President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior.
“Representative Haaland has a very well documented and hostile record toward made in America energy; toward natural resource development; towards wildlife management and sportsmen,” said Daines. “Throughout her tenure as a Congresswoman, Representative Haaland championed the Green New Deal. She advocated for the most extreme positions, including banning all fossil fuels. She co-sponsored legislation to provide federal protections for grizzly bears for ever, without considering the science that s very clear, that supports de-listing that species and returning it back to the states just like we did with Wolves back in 2011.”
Credit https://www.lummis.senate.gov/
As President Biden works to solidify his cabinet, Wyoming s U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis filed to block Deb Haaland s appointment as Secretary of the Interior earlier this week.
She said that her nomination is good for the American Indian community but not for Wyoming.
Lummis said that Wyoming has already been compromising with renewables like wind energy. We are compromising. Have you driven between Cheyenne and Laramie lately? There s an enormous wind farm on an industrial scale. And there are huge industrial sized wind farms going up all over the state, Lummis said.
President Biden enacted an order to stop extractive energy contracts on public lands. This affects Wyoming more than other states because of our reliance on the energy industry for revenue and jobs. Right now 68 percent of Wyoming s minerals are on federal land.
Ed MorrisseyPosted at 8:24 am on March 4, 2021
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Alternate headline: Joe Manchin’s not the only senator with leverage at the moment. Lisa Murkowski’s curious silence during Tanden Watch was no fluke, the Washington Post reported overnight, but Murkowski didn’t have OMB as her priority. The Republican from Alaska needs to spend the next two years delivering for her constituents, and so she’s ready to start cutting deals to bring home Joe Biden’s bacon.
At the moment, however, it appears Biden plays the game better:
Nearly three months later, Murkowski is at the nexus of several of President Biden’s immediate and longer-term priorities on Capitol Hill, approaching each fight with a fiercely independent streak that could prove mutually beneficial for both her and the White House as she faces reelection next year.
Credit The Northern Arapaho Tribe
Wyoming s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso voiced opposition to Deb Haaland during last week s confirmation hearing for secretary of the interior.
During the hearing, Barrasso was critical of Haaland s record on fossil fuel. Barrasso quoted a recent letter written by the Northern Arapaho Business Council about how the Wyoming tribe is just as reliant on fossil fuels as the rest of the state.
However, he failed to mention that in that same letter, the Northern Arapaho Business Council said they are in support of Haaland s appointment.
Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Jordan Dresser said that while the tribe is reliant on fossil fuels, that doesn t change the excitement for the first Native American secretary of the interior a role that has great impact on Indian Country.