Sen. Lisa Murkowski could not not answer the tough question posted by Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe this week: Would she change her vote on Sec. Deb Haaland if she had to do it over?
Haaland has shut down oil, gas, mining, and even life-saving roads in Alaska. And that is only in Year One of the Biden Administration.
“I’d like to change her mind on the decisions that she [Haaland] has made that have negatively impacted the state of Alaska,” Murkowski responded. “Whether it’s with regards to the NPRA, or in regards to what we’re seeing with yet another pause on oil and gas. I’m planning on changing her mind. She hasn’t stated what her mind is but I’m worried about where her mind is on build out of the King Cove Road.”
Murkowski stayed on the fence, indicating that there is not much that can be done about the Biden Administration.
“The reality is we are where we are … We are where we are. We have a secretary who is putting in place policies and proposals that are not good for our state,” she said. But then she reversed herself and indicated that Haaland is irrelevant, because she is not actually driving the decisions. It’s the Biden Administration that has opinions that are different from those held by pro-resource Alaskans.
“I would suggest to you, though, that Deb Haaland is perhaps not the mastermind behind much of this,” Murkowski explained to McCabe. “You have an administration that has a different view of what it means to this country to be energy … less energy vulnerable … We can say energy independent, but our reality is we’re intertwined in many different ways.”
If Haaland was not running the Department of Interior, someone else would execute the Biden policies. Murkowski said that Biden doesn’t appreciate the value of our country producing its own resources.
“Even if we could do a do-over on Deb Haaland, I don’t believe for a minute we would in much of the same situation than we are now with an administration that just has a different view of resource development,” Murkowski said, not taking responsibility for her actions that led to Biden winning and President Trump being impeached.
Murkowski responded to McCabe and other legislators who asked her questions at the end of her annual remarks to the Alaska State Legislature on Tuesday. McCabe said he asked the question because all the other legislators seemed to be pandering to Murkowski.
“She gave me a politican’s answer. She pivoted smartly away from the question, so no I don’t think it was a good answer,” McCabe told Must Read Alaska.
