By SUZANNE DOWNING / MUST READ AMERICA
Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico is suffering through an inevitably contentious and protracted confirmation process for Secretary of the Interior. Her confirmation vote in the Senate Energy Committee comes Thursday, March 4. A floor vote has not been scheduled.
Some Republicans aren’t giving her a pass, fearing her far-left leaning proclivities, although Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has played it safe, asking Haaland only softball questions. Sen. John Barasso has been more pointed, asking how Haaland can justify policies that will kill over one million jobs. The answers are not forthcoming, because the directives are far beyond Haaland’s pay grade.
If confirmed, Haaland will be the most radical Interior Secretary to lead the agency since its creation on March 3, 1849.
She would also be the first Native American, and Democrats universally praise her for that birthright. Democrats like firsts, as they are dedicated to dividing people into marginalized groups that they can then defend.
Western states are scared, for good reason. Haaland is a climate change warrior and a foe of oil drilling and fracking. Although she has a short track record in Congress, she has expressed no interest in American energy innovation or independence.
Western states depend on oil and gas for their economies. Under the Trump Administration, oil and gas jobs supported 10.9 million American jobs — from oil fields to hotel rooms and restaurants — according to American Petroleum Institute figures from 2019.
The petroleum energy sector represents more than 7 percent of the overall US economy. The average salary of those working in oil and gas is $108,000, nearly double the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2020.
Jobs in the clean energy sector, if you can find them, don’t pay anywhere near that.
But Haaland has taken the oppositional stance. She stood with a small group of Gwich’in to protest the opening of the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even though most Alaska Native groups support it.
Alaskans, Texans, and Oklahomans are on edge about Haaland leading the agency that can make or break Western State economies. The land that the Department of Interior controls is almost exclusively in the west.
Questions coming at Haaland in the Senate Energy Committee have naturally explored the regions of her extremism, and just how many jobs she would cost America if she becomes the head of the department.
But ultimately, her appointment matters little. The White House is in charge here. Haaland is a mere figurehead for an agency that has already been taken over by the extreme left. The top person at the agency could be a breadbox, because the real work is coming from the White House, with special assistant appointments embedded throughout the various divisions.
And those appointments, should a person look closely, are deeply concerning: Earthjustice lawyers, Democratic Party operatives, and radical Native American groups have been planted up and down the chain. The takeover of the department has already occurred. Haaland is just the window dressing. Here’s who’s really running the show:
Chelsey Cartwright, deputy White House liaison at the DOI, served as Northeast Regional Political Director on the Biden-Harris campaign.
Maria Castro, Special Assistant, National Park Service was most recently a field organizer with both of the Democratic Party of Georgia and the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaigns.
Alexx Diera, special assistant, Bureau of Land Management, served as the Women’s Vote Director and a Regional Organizing Director on the Biden-Harris Coordinated Campaign in North Carolina.
Mili Gosar, Deputy Chief of Staff – Operations, was the Regional Voter Protection Director for the Midwest on the Biden-Harris campaign.
Caroline Welles, Special Assistant for Fish and Wildlife Services, worked as the National Surrogates Director at the Democratic National Committee, working to create and implement the National Surrogate Strategy for the 2020 General Election.
Natalie Landreth, deputy solicitor, came from the Native American Rights Fund.
Daniel Cordalis, formerly of EarthJustice and Native American Rights Fund, is now deputy solicitor of Water.
These are only a few examples just how deeply political the Department of Interior is under Biden, and how little Haaland matters.
When the Senate Energy votes to advance Haaland’s name — and the members will — it’s icing on the cake for the radical extremists. But if for some reason the committee says she’s too radical, then the Biden Administration will simply find another symbolic figurehead to execute its planned dismantling of the American economy, one oil drilling rig at a time.
Elections matter!
This is what happens when you allow your elections to be stolen and you’re apathetic.
It has happened nationally and locally.
There is complete disregard for what the public wants. The democrats/socialists are agenda driven and don’t care who gets hurt. They are ruining our country!
Spot on. It’s not just the leftists though; it’s the uniparty. I highly doubt Mitch was in the dark about all that was going to happen on Nov 3rd…in fact I would be he was close to being a central player.
We went on an “Adventure Tour” booked through our hotel in Las Vegas yesterday, about 30 miles SW, in the MojaveDesert. 10 people on side-by-sides and ATV. Had a blast! Beautiful granite rocks, cactus if all sort, several desert squirrels, a road runner were spotted. The guides never said word one word about the petroleum products used that day; fuel, plastics, clothing, water bottles, shoes, helmets and of course the 15 pac vans to get there. But, they did point out that (like Alaska), over 90% of Nevada is controlled by the feds. BLM, DOI, DOE & DOD. They also pointed out that you can legally follow trails and go by foot or ATV from that location to the Oregon border without crossing into private property. Which is sad. The federal government is too big. Especially in the West.
Well that may be true, but they had to have somewhere pretty much unpopulated to set up area 51 and now area 52. Also to set off the nukes that ultimately killed Susan Hayward, Agnes moorehead and possibly John Wayne. That being said how are you doing Suzanne? Fine I hope.
It seems odd to me that Rep. Haaland is always referred to as Native American, when she is half Native American and half Norwegian (her father, a highly decorated Marine combat vet , was Norwegian). But I suppose that it doesn’t really matter.
I suspect it matters to her. Prior to ANILCA plenty of part Alaska natives tended to discount their native heritage that changed with the law.
Not surprised that Lisa Murkowski is not doing her job that we expected her to do. Her priority is not Alaska.
Murkowski is not the problem. Its the Republican voters who stubbornly believe she will somehow start doing “her job that we expected her to do.” So they, along with the socialists, keep re-electing her.
You must not have been around when we voted her out in the primary of 2010. The natives and her union owners overcame that with a write-in campaign.
We Republicans voted her out fair and square but she said to us; “Go to hell. I WILL be your senator.” So how could she ever have any respect for us?
The Biden administration is using whatever percentage Native turncoats to make the rest of us become the hated class, once again.
You’re right. “Murkowski is not the problem.:its the Republican voters who stubbornly believe” in the “weird worship of one dude”. Any other half way decent Republican presidential candidate could have beat Biden last November.
Nonsense
Let us not forget that when Secretary-designee Haaland was introduced to the Senate Energy Committee, our own Congressman Don Young sat right beside her and sang her praises. I don’t know what exactly was going on there but I am worried the our own good Congressman has lost his mind.
Saying that Haaland will dismantle 7% of the nation’s economy is a bit disingenuous. That part of the economy isn’t instantaneously going to go away. The demand for energy is robust and will require that it be fulfilled.
The are, however, alternatives. They will emerge over the next decade, and they may, or may not, fulfill the desires of those who espouse them and profit from them. The one sure thing is that the current(sic) system is in need of change, lest we find our planet uninhabitable.
The Alaska GOP is bought off by campaign money from Lisa murkowski, they look the other way as Lisa is voting against our jobs and state. Don’t support the Alaska GOP, they are the Rino’s party.
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