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The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee announced that the confirmation hearing for New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland will take place next Tuesday, February 23rd at 9:30am eastern time. If confirmed, she will become the first Native American Interior Secretary and the first Native American presidential cabinet member, making her nomination a historic choice.
A group of almost 500 national and regional organizations representing the interests of Native Americans, environmental justice advocates, Western communities, and outdoor businesses sent a letter to Senate leadership expressing support for her nomination, and urging swift confirmation by the Senate.
Citing her service as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee and Chair of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Subcommittee, the letter states, "Representative Haaland is a proven leader and the right person to lead the charge against the existential threats of our time—tackling the climate, extinction and COVID-19 crises, and racial justice inequities on our federal public lands." The letter also references the historic nature of Haaland's nomination and lived experience as a Native American woman as a necessary and "much-needed step toward reckoning with a long and troubling legacy while building new, lasting, equitable achievements.”
Biden administration welcomes suggestions for reaching 30x30 conservation goal
President Biden embraced the bold conservation goal to protect 30 percent of America's land and water by 2030, including the aspirational objective in an executive order he signed after just one week in office. The 30x30 goal is supported by a majority of Western voters, and receives bipartisan support in Congress. Dan Ritzman, water and wildlife director for the Sierra Club lands program says of the ambitious conservation goal, “One of the real exciting opportunities for 30x30 is that it’s really not a top-down mandate, where someone in DC is drawing the map and getting us towards 30 percent. The idea is really locally driven conservation efforts—these are bottom-up campaigns, where people familiar with the land and affected by its management will be deeply involved in its conservation.”
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For too long, overproduction and oversupply of fossil fuels, coupled with the bankruptcies and mergers resulting from poor financial management, have created devastating boom-and-bust cycles in small towns. By reforming the broken oil and gas leasing system, and building on Colorado’s existing just transition plan for fossil fuel reliant communities, we can build a more solid foundation in every corner of our state."
