Energy

Biden’s Interior Secretary On The Verge Of Tears Talking About Climate Change

(Screenshot/YoutTube/House Committee on Natural Resources)

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland appeared to be on the verge of tears over climate change as she responded to a question from Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, at a Wednesday hearing with the House Natural Resources Committee.

Westerman and Haaland had been discussing the Biden administration’s commitment to expanding traditional energy sources alongside renewables. The Arkansas congressman argued that the Biden administration gives “lip service” to non-wind and solar energy sources, but questioned the administration’s commitment to promote “all forms” of energy, such as hydroelectric dams, oil and gas.  (RELATED: Biden Admin’s Sweeping New Rules Would Let Green Groups Lease Federal Land Away From Oil, Ranching)

“We’re ignoring the facts, there is not an all-out effort to increase all forms of energy,” said Westerman, who noted China’s rapid expansion in coal power before he continued to question the secretary. “My final question is, are you committed to an all-of-the-above energy strategy that lowers costs for Americans? Are you committed to reducing the permitting debacle that keeps not just traditional energy projects from happening but from new energy sources such as wind and solar? Can we work together to make those things happen?”

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Haaland responded that her office’s door was “always open” to work with anybody both because her department believes “very strongly” in energy independence and to ensure that the U.S. was prepared for the “future” of energy.

“I really do have to say that all of this is because climate change is the crisis of our lifetime,” Haaland continued, her voice trembling. “We have an obligation to future generations to make sure that we have a planet for them to live on. And that’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m working incredibly hard to make sure that we can realize that transition, that we can have differing energy sources, that we can’t continue to be a one-industry country.”

“I think we’re all working towards the most affordable, reliable and cleanest energy for the future, but we have to use common sense in that,” said Westerman, after he thanked Haaland for her comment. “And we can’t ignore the data, ignore the facts and ignore the logic and get blinded by an emotional argument — that is very real —  but we also need to be realistic in the policies that we make and the way that those policies are executed.”

The hearing was then adjourned by Westerman, who chairs the committee.

In a hearing late March, Haaland refused to say whether she preferred for oil to be drilled in “Venezuela, Russia [or the] Middle East” instead of in the U.S., when pressed by Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota. The president’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 would end all federal oil and gas subsidies, which the administration estimates would save roughly $31 billion per year.

Recently, Goldman Sachs estimated that the cost of Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, could exceed $1.2 trillion, more than three times the government’s initial estimate of $379 billion.

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