Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Manchin blocks Biden’s nominee at Interior
Daniel-davis would oversee oil, gas leasing
WASHINGTON — In a sign of a deepening rift among Democrats on energy issues, conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says he will not move forward on President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee oil and gas leasing at the Interior Department.
Manchin, of West Virginia, chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and has great influence on energy and environmental issues in the closely divided Senate. In an op-ed Friday, he cited a leaked memo signed by nominee Laura Daniel-davis that proposed charging oil companies higher rates for drilling off the Alaska coast.
Manchin said the higher rates backed by Daniel-davis for the proposed drilling project in Alaska’s Cook Inlet “were explicitly designed to decrease fossil energy production at the expense of our energy security.”
Even though he had supported Daniel-davis in the past, “I cannot, in good conscience, support her or anyone else who will play partisan politics and agree with this misguided and dangerous manipulation of the law,” Manchin wrote in the Houston Chronicle.
The dispute over Daniel-davis’s nomination comes as the Biden administration nears a decision on a major oil project in Alaska that many environmental groups say would be a blight on Biden’s climate legacy.
Climate activists are outraged that Biden appears open to the huge Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, which they call a “carbon bomb” that would break his campaign pledge to curtail oil drilling on public lands and waters.
Approval of the project would risk alienating young voters who have urged stronger climate action by the White House as Biden approaches a 2024 reelection campaign.
At the same time, Alaska Native leaders with ties to the petroleum-rich North Slope support Conocophillips Alaska’s proposal. They say the Willow Project would bring much-needed jobs and billions of dollars in taxes and mitigation funds to the vast, snow- and ice-covered region nearly 600 miles from Anchorage.
Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and state lawmakers also support the project.
Daniel-davis, who currently serves as Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary for lands and minerals management, would not directly decide the fate of the Willow project, but Manchin and Alaska’s two Republican senators have criticized what they consider her lukewarm support for oil drilling on public lands and water. Daniel-davis oversees Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
She was first nominated for the assistant secretary position nearly two years ago, but her bid has stalled because of the concerns of Manchin and Senate Republicans. Biden renominated her for the post in January.
In a statement Friday, the White House said Biden “nominated Laura Daniel-davis because she has worked to conserve public lands, protect wildlife and address climate change for three decades, while prioritizing a collaborative and partnership-based approach. She is well-qualified for this position and we look forward to her moving forward in the confirmation process.”
Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, said Interior was “very disappointed” to learn of Manchin’s opposition to Daniel-davis after he supported her during two committee hearings and votes over the past two years.
Daniel-davis is one of several Biden nominees whom Manchin has opposed.