Interior secretary nominee Deb Haaland said on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s pause on new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters won’t be a “permanent thing,” an apparent concession to Republicans that would break from the president’s campaign’s promises.
“It’s a pause,” Haaland said in the second day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “It’s not going to be a permanent thing where we are restricting all these things from something.”
Haaland’s comment goes a step further than how she described the policy Tuesday on the first day of her hearing.
MANCHIN PLANS ENERGY COMMITTEE HEARING ON TEXAS POWER CRISIS
Under questioning from Republicans who oppose the leasing pause, Haaland had said, “I don’t believe it is a permanent ban,” but she did not definitely say it would end at some point.
It’s unclear if Haaland’s statement represents a change in policy for the Biden administration or the White House’s position.
Biden, in his first weeks in office, issued an executive order imposing an “indefinite” pause on new oil and gas leases on public lands while the administration reviews balancing fossil fuels with developing renewables as it seeks to reduce emissions to combat climate change. The administration did not provide a timeline for when the pause would end.
But Haaland promised Wednesday, “the review is not going to last forever.”
During the campaign, Biden promised to ban new oil and gas leasing, not just pause it.
However, Haaland has sought to soften her positions on fossil fuel development in order to win support from key swing votes, such as Senate Energy Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, a big coal and natural gas producing state.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We will absolutely rely on the fossil energy,” Haaland said Tuesday after previously stating, when she was a congresswoman representing New Mexico, that she is “wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands.”
