If confirmed, Haaland would be responsible for managing all of the nation’s natural resources, including oil, gas and clean coal, and more than 500 million acres of federal and tribal lands.
She would also be in charge of making good on Biden’s promises to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and create more renewable energy sources.
While Biden flip-flopped on fracking during the presidential campaign — claiming he would ban it before backing it to woo blue-collar voters in states like Pennsylvania — Haaland, 60, is unequivocal.
In interviews, the Native American lawmaker has repeatedly called for a ban on fracking and even signed on to the People’s Demands For Climate Justice, a petition which calls for an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels and an “immediate ban on fracking.”
The New Mexico congresswoman was also the co-sponsor of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal bill which was roundly rejected by the Senate in a 57-0 vote.
“I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands,” Haaland said in an interview with the Guardian in May 2019.
Earlier this year, Haaland told the Albuquerque Journal, “I support a ban on fracking,” and in a Nov. 2018 tweet, she declared: “I 100% support a Green New Deal.”
“As a Native American woman who’s ancestral homeland is under attack from the Fossil Fuel Industry: I 100% support a Green New Deal and a Congressional Climate Commission,” she wrote.
The congresswoman is a member of the Laguna Pueblo people, and if confirmed, would be the first Native American cabinet secretary