World News | Amid rift with Biden, Manchin vows to block oil, gas nomination

WASHINGTON, March 10 (AP) In a sign of Democrats’ deepening rift on energy, conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he would not advance President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Interior Department’s oil and Candidates for the supervision of natural gas leasing.

Manchin, of West Virginia, chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and wields significant influence on energy and environmental issues in a deeply divided Senate. In an op-ed Friday, he cited a leaked memo signed by nominee Laura Daniel Davis that proposed charging oil companies more for drilling off the coast of Alaska.

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Manchin said Daniel-Davis’s support for higher rates on a proposed drilling project in Alaska’s Cook Inlet “clearly aims to reduce fossil energy production at the expense of our energy security.”

Manchin wrote in the Houston Chronicle that while he has supported Daniel Davis in the past, “I cannot in good conscience support her or anyone else who would play partisan politics and agree to this misguided and dangerous legal manipulation.” “.

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The controversy over Daniel Davis’ nomination comes as the Biden administration is close to making a decision on a major oil project in Alaska that many environmental groups say will damage Biden’s climate legacy.

Climate activists are angry that Biden appears to be open to the massive Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, calling it a “carbon bomb” that would run counter to his campaign pledge to reduce oil drilling on public lands and waters.

As Biden approaches his 2024 re-election campaign, approving the project could alienate younger voters who are urging stronger climate action from the White House.

Meanwhile, Native Alaska leaders with ties to the oil-rich North Slope back ConocoPhillips Alaska’s proposal. They say the Willow project will bring much-needed jobs and billions of dollars in tax and mitigation funds to the vast snow-covered region nearly 600 miles (965 kilometers) from Anchorage.

Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and state lawmakers also backed the project.

Daniel Davis, who is currently the Interior Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for lands and minerals management, will not directly decide the fate of the Willow project, but Manchin and two Republican senators from Alaska have criticized her public criticism of oil drilling. Indifference supports land and water. Daniel-Davis oversees the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

She was first nominated for the assistant secretary job nearly two years ago, but her campaign stalled amid concerns from Manchin and Senate Republicans. Biden renominated her for the post in January.

In a statement on Friday, the White House said Biden “nominated Laura Daniel-Davis for her three decades of work to protect public lands, protect wildlife and fight climate change, while prioritizing efforts based on collaboration and A partnership approach. She is well-qualified for this position and we look forward to her progress in the confirmation process.”

Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Deb Halland, said the Interior Department was “very disappointed” to learn that Manchin was against Daniel Day after two committee hearings and votes in favor of Manchin over the past two years. Weiss.

“Laura Daniel-Davis has served this administration as she has served two other administrations, and we want to see that dedication in every public servant,” Schwartz said. She will continue to lead this portfolio of the Department of the Interior and implement President Biden’s directive, which has been consistent and clear since day one on the careful balancing of the role of public lands and waters as we face the climate crisis .”

Daniel Davis is one of several Biden nominees Manchin has opposed. Another is Gigi Sohn, who withdrew her nomination to the FCC after Manchin opposed her.

Manchin also voted against Daniel Werfel’s nomination to lead the IRS. Werfel was confirmed Thursday with the support of several Republicans.

In his op-ed, Manchin sharply criticized the Biden administration’s implementation of the Reducing Inflation Act (IRA), a key climate, tax and health care bill that Manchin helped write.

“While the Biden administration continues to play the political game by mischaracterizing the IRA as climate change legislation, the truth is that the IRA is about ensuring America’s energy independence for the next century,” Manchin wrote

“The Biden administration continues to disregard Congress’ intent on key components of the IRA … illogically advancing a partisan climate agenda and placating radical activists,” Manchin added. He said the Departments of the Interior and Treasury “have clearly and unabashedly violated the letter of the law … in attempting to elevate climate goals over the country’s energy and national security.”

Manchin has repeatedly blasted the Treasury Department for issuing guidelines that allow European and Asian automakers to bypass the requirement to produce most electric vehicle batteries in North America.

“This is wrong and must stop,” Manchin wrote. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)