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Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico is one of President Biden's most historic Cabinet picks. Haaland has been nominated to be Interior Secretary, a position that would make her the first Native American to run the agency overseeing both federal land management as well as Indian Affairs.
However, two Republican Senators, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Steve Daines of Montana have spoken up in opposition to Haaland's nomination on the grounds of her 'radical' views on energy policy. The oil and gas industry has been a top-five contributor to both of the lawmakers' careers, giving over $1 million to each.
The lawmakers' objections are prompted in part because of a temporary pause on federal oil and gas leasing issued by the Biden administration in order to assess and fix the broken system. The oil and gas industry, as well as lawmakers from fossil fuel producing states, have followed the leasing pause by warning of dire peril. However, a deeper examination of the facts reveals lawmakers and the industry crying wolf.
The oil and gas industry has stockpiled 13.4 million acres of idle oil and gas leases that are not being used for production, as well as thousands of approved but unused drilling permits, all of which are still usable under the pause. Oil industry representative David Harris of Devon Energy Corp. has stated, "We have a deep inventory of approved federal drilling permits in hand that essentially cover all of our desired activity over the next presidential term."
In the past, both Republican lawmakers backed anti-public lands extremist William Perry Pendley as nominee to head up Interior's Bureau of Land Management. Pendley had a documented history of calling for the sale of federal lands, as well as racist attacks on Indigenous communities.
On the other hand, Haaland is a strong supporter of conservation and public lands. She has broad support among elected tribal leaders, and has represented the oil-producing state of New Mexico for years. Haaland also has a strong relationship with House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona after serving on the Committee since 2018.
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Nature is supposed to be a great equalizer. In reality, however, American society distributes nature's benefits and the effect of its destruction and decline unequally by race, income and age."
