The Guardian
How Deb Haaland’s confirmation offer became a ‘proxy struggle’ for fossil fuels
Joe Biden’s progressive candidate for secretary of the interior faced tough questions from lawmakers with deep ties to the industry, Deb Haaland, in a Senate hearing on his confirmation as secretary of the interior. Photo: Reuters Amid Deb Haaland’s sometimes contentious confirmation hearing as United States Interior Secretary last week, came recognition from the two powerful forces, with very different attitudes towards the climate crisis, that faced each other over the nomination . “I almost feel like your nomination is a proxy dispute over the future of fossil fuels,” Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell told Haaland during the Senate hearing. Haaland, a strong advocate of climate action who seeks to be the first Native American confirmed as cabinet secretary, was careful not to get directly involved in this fight, assuring senators that fossil fuels would be around for “the next few years” and that she he intended to be someone who “will serve all Americans, not just my district in New Mexico.” But the battle lines between the fossil fuel industry and the activists and environmentalists who oppose it were clearly drawn in the struggle for the nomination of Haaland. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who received nearly $ 1.2 million from oil and gas companies and their employees in his Senate term, said he was “concerned about many of the [Haaland’s] radical views ”and scolded her for a tweet in which she said Republicans did not believe in science. Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said he was “deeply concerned” about Haaland’s “radical” support for the interruption of Joe Biden’s oil and gas drilling on public lands, forgetting to mention that his campaign raised $ 288,500. these industries only in the last five years. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who throughout his Senate career has accepted almost $ 1.7 million in oil and gas interests, asked Haaland pointedly: “Will your administration be guided by a prejudice against fossil fuels or will it be guided for science? ” while Mike Lee of Utah, who blamed the protections imposed on the Bears Ears, an area of the state important to Native Americans, for “impoverishing” locals, raised $ 366,000 in oil and gas during his Senate term. This strong opposition is unlikely to drown out Haaland’s nomination, as Republicans are a minority in the Senate and Joe Manchin, a Democratic conservative at the heart of West Virginia’s coal, said he will vote to confirm it after obtaining sufficient assurances that fuels fossils won. t be immediately discarded to face the climate crisis that is unfolding. But the dispute over Haaland’s nomination highlights the enormous political challenge of swiftly switching the United States from oil, coal and gas to cleaner forms of energy to avoid increasingly disastrous heat waves, floods, forest fires, social unrest and other diseases. Republicans have signaled that they will vigorously make a status quo whereby the extraction of fossil fuel from vast areas of public land, including areas sacred to Native Americans, remains unimpeded. Opposing them is a broad coalition of environmental, youth and indigenous rights groups, along with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which sees Haaland’s historic rise as a pivotal moment to tackle long-standing environmental, economic, racial and cultural inequalities. social. “The grassroots defense and civic engagement of the natives, and not campaign contributions from the extractive industries, should be the main factor driving the Department of the Interior,” said Judith LeBlanc, executive director of the Native Organizers Alliance, which is part of an effort in which tens of thousands of letters were sent by American Indians to senators asking for Haaland’s confirmation. She added: “Needless to say, the importance of this moment for indigenous peoples everywhere. For an indigenous woman to assume this role means that real change is underway. This reflects a reckoning with the long history of systemic racism. ”A member of Laguna Pueblo, Haaland has become a progressive champion through his defense of tribal communities, as well as the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to eliminate US greenhouse gas emissions – a quarter of which is currently generated on public land. “For us, your confirmation means progress towards environmental, racial and economic justice,” said Ellen Sciales, spokeswoman for the Sunrise Movement, a youth justice organization. But while Haaland may participate in protests such as the Dakota Access pipeline, which threatens the Standing Rock tribe’s land and water, her supporters point out that she has sufficient bipartisan faith to lead a department with 70,000 staff members who manage about one fifth of the American landmass. “One thing unique about Deb is his background during the Trump party era,” said Jade Begay, a member of the Tesuque Pueblo and Navajo Nation and director of the NDN Collective climate justice campaign. “She is a skilled politician who knows how to work beyond party lines and much of the countryside [department] policies are about relationships between communities that don’t agree, like the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists. We need someone who is a skilled bridge maker and this is Deb Haaland. ”Haaland with Don Young from Alaska before the hearing. Photo: Reuters Even Don Young, a United States Republican representative known for embracing the fossil fuel industry who said at the hearing that “you have to be in the pot” to think that oil and gas will be eliminated, said he supported Haaland’s nomination after working productively with her. “She has been working with me. She crossed the corridor and, as a member of this government, I know she will do a good job, ”said the Alaskan lawmaker. “Respectfully, I want you to hear it. Understand that there is a broad picture. ”The struggle for the nomination of Haaland and the obstacles she faces once confirmed can illustrate the overall climate challenge in miniature. The United States will be able to use the trick of quickly switching to renewable energies and, at the same time, take workers who are at risk of falling behind, or will remain umbilically linked to extractive industries that spoil the climate, the water supply and people’s health? Climate activists hope Haaland will help solve the problem. “She understands the science behind climate change and the urgent need to change our priorities,” said Sharon Buccino, land director for the National Council for the Defense of Resources. “Your opponents are stuck in the past – we need to look for other sources of energy besides oil and gas to provide a secure and prosperous energy future.”