Rep. Deb Haaland, President Biden’s secretary of the Department of the Interior nominee, declined to say on Wednesday if she would advise Biden to extend his moratorium on oil and gas leases if confirmed.
Biden signed an executive order to ban new oil and gas leases for 60 days. During questioning at the second day of Haaland’s confirmation hearings, Sen. John Barrasso, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, cited Haaland’s past statement calling for the federal government to “keep fossil fuels in the ground.”
Barrasso entered a letter into the record from the Northern Arapaho Business Council that said delays in leasing have already hurt small-to-medium-sized operators in Wyoming and that further delays would damage the economy… READ MORE