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The second day of Rep. Deb Haaland's confirmation hearing took a strange turn when several senators with a history of supporting unscientific policies accused President Biden's Interior Secretary nominee of being anti-science.
Senators John Barrasso, Steve Daines, and Bill Cassidy all took issue with a tweet thread during the vice presidential debate of October 2020 in which Haaland noted that the Trump administration had erased the word "science" from several government websites.
Haaland clarified to Barrasso that “yes, if you’re a doctor, I would assume that you believe in science.” She did not mention a long history of anti-science votes by Barrasso and other GOP members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which HuffPost recounted after the hearing. Most glaringly, in 2015, Barrasso, Daines, and Cassidy all voted to reject the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is “a significant contributor” to climate change.
The anti-science detour did not derail Haaland's nomination, which appears headed for approval after ranking member Joe Manchin signaled he would vote to confirm Haaland.
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The markets for coal have pretty much collapsed, investors are no longer interested in putting money into coal, and so the long-term prospects for these companies are just not good. And so, trying to figure out a way to exit without depriving state and federal coffers of that money down the road is an important issue. The government just doesn’t seem to have done a great job here doing that.”
