Four nominees for the Interior and Energy departments get their confirmation hearings next week before Sen. James Lankford and others on the Senate Energy Committee.
One is Tracy Stone-Manning who was chosen by the Biden White House to lead the Bureau of Land Management. She is an executive of the National Wildlife Federation where she became the senior adviser for conservation policy. Stone-Manning’s career also included time as head of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to which she was appointed by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and also with Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, both Democrats.
Three decades ago, she was also a spokeswoman for Earth First, an activist environmental group.
The 55-year old Stone-Manning was also an opponent of the drilling policies of former President Trump calling them destructive to public lands. In 2019, she also claimed the Republican agenda was “out of whack” between conservation and development.
Stone-Manning is going before the same committee that criticized the nomination of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the former Democratic Representative from New Mexico who eventually won confirmation. She would serve under Haaland if confirmed.
The Senate Energy Committee will also hold confirmation hearings for Andrew Light, a former senior State Department official who was nominated to be DOE assistant secretary; Shalanda Baker to be director of DOE’s Office of Minority Economic Impact and Samuel Walsh to be DOE general counsel.