The Department of Interior (DOI) is an important agency to all Western public land resource users. President Joe Biden’s nomination for the DOI cabinet post, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), is causing quite a controversy. Haaland is a Native American woman who supports the Green New Deal. Her ideology includes no fossil fuels fracking and she’s not too keen on mining, however she is connected to the ranching industry through family.
The confirmation hearing didn’t reveal much other than she’s a Native American and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is under the DOI, which is understandable. Native Americans haven’t been treated very well over the years. Her disdain for fossil fuels lit up the Republican senators on the committee who for the most part have substantial oil, gas and coal interests.
Haaland has been labeled a radical progressive who attended the rallies for the Dakota Access pipeline. She really has no clear qualifications to be secretary of the DOI other than she is Native American, which fills one of President Biden’s diversity boxes.
When President Biden put a freeze on oil and gas permits on public lands and pulled the permit on the XL Pipeline, he totally disrupted much of rural America. Lots of jobs were lost and business supporting the industry saw a severe reduction in gross revenues. Biden’s thinking on this is a bit hard to understand other than it was an ideological move. The Green New Deal is coming, regardless of the economy and other people’s lives.
The irony of the permit shutdown and XL pipeline is that the country recently suffered a big freeze and the folks in Texas aren’t used to that kind of weather. They suffered huge power losses because they relied on wind and solar energy. Windmills were literally covered with ice and couldn’t operate. The message was that fossil fuels are still the mainstay for the American power grid.
Fossil fuels are still the mainstay of U.S. energy and will never go away. It appears that wind and solar are fine to produce but should be used to supplement the power grid. Net zero emissions by 2050 is a noble but idealistic thought. Besides 80 percent of a barrel of oil goes to manufacturing.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who grilled Haaland over her views on fossil fuels told her how many thousands of jobs were lost with Biden’s early energy play, which had environmentalists dancing in the frozen streets. She commented that she served at the pleasure of the president and that she would carry out the president’s agenda…which we already know is “Climate Change.”
Climate change and an American response appears to be the legacy that President Biden wants, regardless of the economic damage. And the idea that these fossil fuels guys can be retrained to be solar technicians is kind of insulting.
Haaland’s confirmation is delicate at this time; she may be confirmed before you get this newspaper. It appears that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will support her, which is somewhat surprising since he represents a coal state that President Barack Obama tried to destroy. If it goes to a party line vote, Vice President Kamala Harris would have to step in. However, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) could blow it up with her ties to Alaskan Native American communities on one side and Alaska’s huge energy industry on the other. She is in a tight spot politically.
The fossil fuel industry contributes huge taxes to states and their educational obligations. Haaland said that she supports legalizing pot and that the tax revenue could make up the difference. Haaland is just a puppet for the Biden administration. She will run the department as she’s told to. She is a second term congresswoman who’s about to gain a lot of power over Western resource users.
Public lands and the multi-use concept will be a challenge for Western resource users. Those in timber, mining, oil and gas, and agriculture should all be very concerned over this “historic” cabinet appointment regardless of her Native American heritage.
Senators were desperately trying to understand her thoughts on issues like fracking and pipelines, oil, infrastructure and electrical easements, but she wouldn’t say. She only said that she would carry out Biden’s agenda. They were asking how she would advise the president; she wouldn’t provide a coherent response.
Elections have consequences and here is another example of how the pendulum swings in American leadership. Let’s just hope that Vice President Harris doesn’t have to step in with all the ideological incoherent thinking occurring in Washington, D.C. — PETE CROW
