© Provided by Washington Examiner Interior secretary nominee Deb Haaland said Wednesday that Biden's administration's pause on new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters won't be a "permanent thing."
"It's a pause," Haaland said in the second day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "It's not going to be a permanent thing where we are restricting all these things from something."
Haaland's comment goes a step further that how she described the policy Tuesday in the first day of her hearing.
Under questioning from Republicans who oppose the leasing pause, Haaland had said, "I don't believe it is a permanent ban" but she did not definitely say it would end at some point.
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Biden, in his first weeks in office, issued an executive order imposing an "indefinite" pause on new oil and gas leases on public lands, while the administration reviews balancing fossil fuels with developing renewables as it seeks to reduce emissions to combat climate change. The administration did not provide a timeline for when the pause would end.
But Haaland promised Wednesday, "the review is not going to last forever."
During the campaign, Biden promised to ban new oil and gas leasing, not just pause it.
However, Haaland has sought to soften her positions on fossil fuel development in order to win support from key swing votes such as Energy Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, a big coal and natural gas producing state.
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"We will absolutely rely on the fossil energy," Haaland said Tuesday after previously stating when she was a congressman representing New Mexico that she is "wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands."
Tags: News, Energy and Environment, Deb Haaland, Interior, Biden Administration
Original Author: Josh Siegel
Original Location: Haaland says Biden's oil and gas leasing pause won't be a 'permanent thing'