“I almost feel like your nomination is a proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels,” Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, told Haaland during the Senate hearing. But the battle lines between the fossil fuel industry and the activists and environmentalists opposed to it have been starkly drawn in the fight for Haaland’s nomination. Republicans have signaled they will fiercely enforce a status quo whereby fossil fuel extraction across vast swaths of public land, including areas sacred to Native Americans, remains unhindered. “She’s a skilled politician who knows how to work across party lines, and a lot of interior [department] policies are about relationships between communities who don’t see eye to eye, like the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists. Understand that there’s a broad picture.”The struggle over Haaland’s nomination, and the obstacles she faces once confirmed, may well illustrate the overall climate challenge in miniature.

Source: The Guardian February 28, 2021 09:56 UTC