Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Wednesday warned President Joe Biden’s nominees to head the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appear to be “eager to restart the left’s war on domestic energy.”
“I’ve voted for several of President Biden’s nominees. But his choices to lead Interior and the EPA appear eager to restart the left’s war on domestic energy,” the minority leader said Wednesday. “Kentuckians know that when radical policies are on the table, it means their jobs and pocketbooks are on the menu”:
Both Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), Biden’s nominee to lead the Interior Department, and North Carolina Secretary of Environmental Quality Michael Regan, whom he tapped to head the EPA, have a history of prioritizing the progressive pursuit of “environmental justice,” as Breitbart News reported:
Similarly, Haaland appeared to have secured the post of Interior Secretary because of her commitment to “environmental justice.” Haaland, a first-term congresswoman, has made headlines recently for pushing legislation to require the Interior Department to audit how its actions impact environmental justice. She has also come out in support of banning all oil and gas drilling in the vicinity of federal land.
Biden’s choice of both Haaland and Regan indicates that “environmental justice” will be a central tenant of his administration, not just the purview of one department.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Tuesday paved the way for the upper chamber to confirm Haaland, who once said she is “wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands.”
“She would be the first Native American Cabinet member of any agency and the first Indigenous secretary of the Department of Interior, a profoundly historic moment given the troubled relationship between the federal government and tribal nations,” Schumer said, promising “despite Republican obstruction, Rep. Haaland will be confirmed.”
Last month, Haaland defended joining protesters at the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, contending that she was standing with “the water protectors.”
Steve Pearce, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, warned the GOP needs to fight Haaland’s nomination, specifically because of her “radical” position on fossil fuel production in the United States.
“She’ll be doing things that are devastating nationwide,” he said during a January 30 appearance on Breitbart News Sunday.
Republicans have since grilled Haaland over her past remarks, including her assertion that Republicans “don’t believe in science”:
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