MANCHIN’S VOTE SMOOTHS INTERIOR NOMINEE’S PATH
W.Va. Democrat’s support likely seals her confirmation
Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va. and head of the Senate Energy Committee, announced Wednesday that he would vote to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., to head the Interior Department, most likely ensuring that one of President Joe Biden’s most embattled Cabinet nominees will be confirmed to office, despite escalating opposition to her from Republicans.
The vote of Manchin, a centrist Democrat from a fossil fuel state who often sides with Republicans on energy issues, could be crucial to Haaland’s confirmation. Republicans this week sharpened their attacks on the former environmental activist, signaling that the vote to confirm her could come down to party lines in the evenly divided Senate.
If confirmed, Haaland would make history as the first Native American to head a Cabinet agency. She would also play a central role in advancing Biden’s climate change agenda as the head of an agency that oversees more than 500 million acres of public lands, including national parks, oil and gas drilling sites, and endangered species habitat. And she would be charged with enacting one of Biden’s most contentious proposals: the banning of future leases to conduct hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas on public lands.
On Tuesday, Sen. Maria
Cantwell, D-Wash., told Haaland, “I almost feel like your nomination is sort of this proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels.”
That proxy fight has ignited as Republicans have expressed concerns about Haaland’s history of pushing to shut down fossil fuel drilling and pipelines — positions that go far beyond those of Biden.
During her two-day Senate hearing this week, Haaland, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, sought repeatedly to persuade Republicans that, in her role as the head of a federal agency, she would carry out the agenda of the president, rather than push her past personal positions.
In particular, Republicans pressed her again about her past remarks, such as an interview in 2019 in which she said, “I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands,” and her participation with the Standing Rock Sioux protesters in North Dakota in 2016 who camped out for months in opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Haaland sought to thread a needle between those past remarks and actions, saying, “If I’m confirmed as secretary, that is a far different role than a congresswoman representing one small district in my state. So I understand that role: It’s to serve all Americans, not just my one district in New Mexico.”
In a statement announcing his support of Haaland, Manchin said, “While we do not agree on every issue, she reaffirmed her strong commitment to bipartisanship, addressing the diverse needs of our country and maintaining our nation’s energy independence.”