["The opposition to Congresswoman Haalands confirmation is narrow
and guided by money, not the qualifications or historic importance of
what the nomination of Deb Haaland will do for this country."]
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MANCHIN CALLED TO 'DO WHAT'S RIGHT' AND CONFIRM HAALAND  
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Kenny Stancil
February 23, 2021
Common Dreams
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_ "The opposition to Congresswoman Haaland's confirmation is narrow
and guided by money, not the qualifications or historic importance of
what the nomination of Deb Haaland will do for this country." _

Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), President Joe Biden's nominee for interior
secretary, speaks during her Senate confirmation hearing on February
23, 2021 in Washington, D.C., Jim Watson-Pool/Getty Images

 

As Rep. Deb Haaland's first confirmation hearing
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off Tuesday, progressives reiterated their support
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for President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Interior Department, and
urged Republican senators as well as Sen. Joe Manchin—a conservative
Democrat and chairman of the Senate Energy Committee—to drop their
objections to the congresswoman's appointment.

If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland (D-N.M.)—a Green New Deal-backer
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and member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico—would be the
first-ever Native American to lead the department tasked with
protecting some 500 million acres of federal lands and overseeing the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.

While progressives have cited Haaland's opposition to fracking and
other destructive fossil fuel projects such as the Dakota Access
Pipeline [[link removed]] as
evidence for why she is a highly qualified candidate
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secretary of the interior, the GOP's antagonism
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toward Biden's nominee is based on Haaland's support for reversing the
oil and gas industry's harmful legacy of extraction and pollution on
land belonging to the U.S. public and tribal nations.

Although the attempt by Republican senators John Barrasso (Wyo.),
Steve Daines (Mont.), and others to "torpedo
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Haaland's nomination" is unsurprising given their deep ties to the
fossil fuel industry, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday
night criticized Manchin (D-W.Va.) for his ambivalence after his
spokesperson told
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News_ correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell that he was "undecided."

In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez drew attention to Manchin's record regarding
previous cabinet-level appointees. She focused on the vote he cast to
confirm Jeff Sessions as then-President Donald Trump's first attorney
general even though the former Republican senator from Alabama, who
oversaw the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant
families at the U.S.-Mexico border, was "so openly racist that even
Reagan couldn't appoint him."

"Manchin voted to confirm him," Ocasio-Cortez coninued, "yet the first
Native woman to be Cabinet secretary is where Manchin finds unease?"

Given the significance of Manchin's potentially decisive vote in the
evenly split upper chamber, other progressive advocates, including
Evan Weber—political director of the Sunrise Movement, a leading
climate justice organization—weighed in on Manchin's record of
voting for far less qualified cabinet and Supreme Court picks without
hesitation and urged the Senate Energy Committee chairman to back the
well-qualified Haaland.

"We understand it is a sound practice to question pending nominees,
but Senator Manchin had no problem voting for Jeff Sessions, Rex
Tillerson, Brett Kavanaugh, and others who have been outwardly racist,
sexist, unqualified, and have invoked harmful policies," Weber said
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in a statement. "So why would he be undecided on Rep. Haaland, who is
not only uniquely qualified for this role, but would make history as
the first Native American cabinet secretary?"

"There is a clear groundswell of support behind congresswoman
Haaland," Weber continued, "and her confirmation would help realize
sovereignty to native people while invoking the change we need to meet
the urgency and scale of the climate crisis. We challenge Senator
Manchin to be brave, stand up to the fossil fuel industry, and do
what's right by moving Rep. Haaland's nomination to the Senate floor
for a vote."

Meanwhile, the GOP's hostility toward Haaland was on full display
during Tuesday's contentious hearing, led by Republican senators with
connections to the oil and gas industry.

In a statement released Tuesday, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.),
chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, noted
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that "the opposition to her confirmation from some senators is
nothing new. Republican senators have experienced various stages of
denial and avoidance to delay and undermine an adequate national and
federal response to addressing the consequential issue of climate
change."

 
"Representative Haaland," Grijalva added, "is going to do something
about it, and they know it."

When questioned on the policy Tuesday, Haaland stressed that the Biden
administration's moratorium
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on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters is temporary.
Haaland explained that while she favors developing renewable energy
sources, she understands that the transition away from fossil fuels
will not "happen overnight."

Grijalva predicted that "as senators listen to and have the
opportunity to hear from Haaland directly, they will understand she
brings with her the capacity and ability to do this job well, no
question. The department's leadership over the last four years has
suffered greatly. Our public lands are a shared asset, and it's time
we start acting like that."

According to Grijalva, "the opposition to Congresswoman Haaland's
confirmation is narrow and guided by money, not the qualifications or
historic importance of what the nomination of Deb Haaland will do for
this country."

Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) concurred, saying
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that "these attacks, waged against her by some of the closest allies
to Big Oil, are nothing more than an attempt to protect their special
interests' bottom line in Congress. These senators know that she will
finally stand up to Big Oil, and this terrifies them."

Most of the GOP's talking points focused on Haaland's alleged threat
to fossil fuel workers—ignoring her advocacy of using clean energy
production and a civilian climate corps to create green jobs—but
Corley Kenna of the outdoor recreation company Patagonia pointed out
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that "more people in Wyoming are employed by the outdoor recreation
industry than the oil and gas sector."

"So when Senator Barrasso, [who] receives more money from the oil and
gas industry than any other sector... says he is opposed to Rep.
Haaland's nomination based on job loss, it rings pretty hollow."

Kenna continued:

Senator Daines, who was reelected just last year after repeatedly
promising the people of Montana that he cared deeply about public
lands, says he can't support her because she wants to protect public
lands! The extractive industries have also been exceptionally
effective in confusing communities about the science and realities of
what happens when we take from nature. They distort the truth around
the often-deadly footprint that their businesses leave behind and the
jobs that they create. We need to set the record straight on jobs: The
outdoor industry supports 6.1 million jobs—compared with 2.1 million
jobs supported by the oil and gas industry.

Calling her "a visionary leader who knows we must protect places
sacred to the American people like the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge," Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in
Steering Committee, said in a statement released Tuesday that as
secretary of the interior, Haaland "will bring her experience and
knowledge to make a better world where lands and waters are healthy
for future generations."

Haaland's confirmation hearing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday at
10:00 am EST.

"Senate Republicans," said
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Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig, "need to stop fighting for Big
Oil and instead fight for the people they were elected to represent.
They must work with Democrats to quickly confirm Haaland and let her
get to work tackling the climate crisis that threatens us all."

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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