If Democratic New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is going to become Interior Secretary in a Biden administration, she will have to get by North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer. And other Republican senators.
Her past support of a federal fracking ban and the green new deal has already attracted criticism from supporters of the oil and gas industry. Sen. Cramer openly voiced his criticism of Biden’s nomination of Michael Regan to be the EPA administrator and according to POLITICO, promised “a bit of a brawl.”
Interviewed on the Fox Business program “Varney & Co.”, Cramer said, “We’re going to have to stand our ground and fight the fight.” He pointed to Regan because North Carolina, where Regan is a state regulator, sued the Trump administration over the Waters of the U.S. Rule. Regan also denied permits to the Mountain Valley natural gas line’s Southgate extension according to POLITICO.
Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee also vowed to make Biden nominees “run the gauntlet” at their confirmation hearings.
He said the Republican party is “not going to forget what happened with President Trump’s administration and the delayed process that went through—.”
Barrasso’s offered his criticism of the climate team and others picked by Biden saying the team looks like a “third term of the Obama administration.”