Haaland begins assault on the American energy industry at DOI, enviro-Marxists applaud

On Friday, anti-energy extremist Department of the Interior secretary Deb Haaland announced the beginning of her assault on the oil and gas industry, rescinding previous orders by the Donald J. Trump administration to promote oil, gas, and coal extraction, which brought America to global energy dominance.

“From day one,… Biden was clear that we must take a whole-of-government approach to tackle the climate crisis, strengthen the economy and address environmental justice,” Haaland wrote in a statement. The new orders will “make our communities more resilient to climate change and … help lead the transition to a clean energy economy,’’ she claimed.

According to the Associated Press (AP), “The orders revoke Trump-era directives that boosted coal, oil and gas leasing on federal lands and promoted what Trump called ‘energy dominance’ in the United States. Haaland also rescinded a Trump administration order intended to increase oil drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.” 

“One of the orders issued by Haaland cancels a 2017 action that revoked a moratorium on federal coal reserve sales that had been imposed under President Barack Obama to deal with climate change,” according to the AP.

In another order, Haaland created a “Climate Task Force” to root out every possible way the United States could rely on hydrocarbon energy, which would decimate countless American jobs. She calls these actions “environmental justice.”

The orders come as a significant blow to energy-producing states like New Mexico and Alaska, despite Alaska’s Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan lending her votes in favor of Haaland’s confirmation, while the state’s at-large Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young promoted Haaland during the confirmation hearings.

Haaland called the orders by her predecessors, Secretaries Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt, “inconsistent with the department’s commitment to protect public health; conserve land, water, and wildlife; and elevate science,” despite no such inconsistency existing. 

Haaland claimed that the previous orders “tilted the balance of public land and ocean management without regard for climate change, equity or community engagement.” 

Haaland is a supporter of the extreme socialist Green New Deal, which would completely decimate the United States’ natural resources extraction industries and cost upward of $93 trillion over the next decade, with a potential cost of $600,000 per household. 

During her painful confirmation hearings where Haaland could not answer basic questions about the Department of the Interior, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) asked Haaland, “Did you or do you now support the Biden action of shutting down the Keystone Pipeline his first day in office?” She refused to answer the question, responding, “I have to respect it, uh, Senator. He is the president of the United States, and I realize that, um, these are some of the things that he talked about when he was running for office.” Not until Sen. Risch had to press three more times did he get a vaguely discernible answer from Haaland where she finally said, “I will tend to support President Biden’s positions. I assume you could take my answer as a yes.” 

However, radical enviro-Marxist groups such as the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) applauded Haaland’s assault on the energy industry. “Rescinding the previous administration’s orders that encouraged unfettered drilling in ecologically and culturally sensitive areas and establishing a climate task force will help ensure wise management of our natural resources for people and wildlife alike,’’ said the group’s president, Collin O’Mara. NWF supports the Marxist “Green New Deal.” 

At the Department of the Interior, Haaland oversees 480 million acres of public land, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf. She also has pledged to ban fracking, which will cripple states like New Mexico who rely heavily on the critical industry. The Department of the Interior oversees One-third of New Mexico’s land. The state’s oil, gas, coal, and refining industries are not expected to last long under the aggressive anti-energy policies of state and local, and federal leaders.