Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Monday highlighted a Wall Street Journal story on Deb Haaland — President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior — with a tweet accurately stating: “Interior secretary nominee has joined pipeline protests and opposed fracking.”
While Cornyn intended the message to be a criticism of Haaland — who, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary — progressives said the New Mexico congresswoman’s steadfast opposition to fracking and destructive fossil fuel infrastructure projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline are precisely what make her the most qualified candidate for a role tasked with protecting federal lands and overseeing the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“Thank God,” Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-New York) said in response to Cornyn’s tweet. “Confirm her immediately.”
Climate scientist Michael Mann tweeted at the Texas Republican, “You make a compelling argument for approving the nominee, senator.”
As the Journal reported, Haaland in recent years “has joined with pipeline protesters, supported the Green New Deal, and opposed fracking on public lands. For a cabinet post that oversees the government’s longstanding, multibillion-dollar partnership with drillers on federal lands, Ms. Haaland’s environmental politics are in contrast to those of her predecessors.” If confirmed, Haaland would succeed former oil and gas lobbyist David Bernhardt.
The Journal goes on to quote from a 2017 Medium post in which Haaland, then a congressional candidate, wrote, “Fracking is a danger to the air we breathe and water we drink.”
“The auctioning off of our land for fracking and drilling serves only to drive profits to the few,” Haaland continued. “We must not destroy protected Native ancestral lands and important cultural and heritage sites for the sake of a relatively short-term oil and gas fix, especially when it results in the degradation of sacred sites, land, water, and air.”
Last month, as Common Dreams reported, Biden ordered a 60-day pause on new leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands, a temporary ban that climate activists said they hope will be made permanent.
These are the exact reasons Deb Haaland is the right pick for Interior secretary. https://t.co/gZjqAeUL8D
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) February 15, 2021
While the fossil fuel industry and Republican senators have objected to Haaland’s history of fighting oil and gas pipelines and backing the Green New Deal — Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) told the Journal that it is “unprecedented” for an Interior Department nominee to support such “radical policies” — members of the Senate Democratic caucus made clear that the congresswoman’s positions are well-suited to a time of climate emergency.
“We need an Interior Secretary who has the guts to take on fossil fuel CEOs whose greed is destroying the planet,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “We need an Interior Secretary who will protect our environment. I’m confident Deb Haaland is that person and I am proud to support her nomination.”
In a letter to Daines and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) last week, leaders of the Global Indigenous Council, Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, and Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association urged swift confirmation of Haaland, who has yet to have her first confirmation hearing. Daines, as the Journal reported, has threatened to use procedural delay tactics to obstruct Haaland’s confirmation.
“There is good reason for tribal nations and their tribal members opposing projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline,” the Indigenous leaders wrote, referring to the fossil fuel project that Biden halted last month by revoking a federal permit. “Not only would that have created immense vulnerability to reservation communities along its proposed route, it, like similar initiatives from a bygone age, threatened environmental catastrophe.”
Having an Indigenous person serve as Interior secretary is “way overdue,” the letter continued. “We are proud to support Representative Deb Haaland to be that woman to make history.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.