{"id":1458166,"date":"2022-04-29T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458166"},"modified":"2022-04-29T12:59:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T16:59:41","slug":"what-has-murkowskis-vote-for-deb-haaland-done-for-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-has-murkowskis-vote-for-deb-haaland-done-for-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"What Has Murkowski\u2019s Vote For Deb Haaland Done For Alaska?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-has-murkowskis-vote-for-deb-haaland-done-for-alaska%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458166&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/37625491716_cd7784b488_h-e1651243977910.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was one of four Republican senators to cross party lines last year to vote for President Joe Biden\u2019s activist pick to lead the Department of the Interior, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland. More than 13 months after Haaland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/16\/senate-confirms-trojan-horse-picks-for-bidens-radical-energy-agenda\/\">confirmation<\/a>, Alaskans are paying the price for Murkowski\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n<p>In her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.murkowski.senate.gov\/press\/release\/murkowski-announces-support-for-interior-secretary-nominee-haaland\">press release<\/a> for the confirmation, Murkowski expressed buyer\u2019s remorse for having voted in 2013 to confirm President Barack Obama\u2019s former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who shut down plans for construction of a road to serve the residents of isolated King Cove nine years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI voted for a Secretary who promised to be a good partner for Alaska, but proved to be anything but that after confirmation,\u201d Murkowski said, \u201cso I struggled with this vote.\u201d One year later, it\u2019s clear Murkowski made the same mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Murkowski\u2019s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Haaland finally followed through on a promise extracted during the confirmation process to visit the residents of the southwest Alaskan village of King Cove who have pled for years to build a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The proposed 12-mile road would connect the isolated village to the community at Cold Bay, where an all-weather airport offers year-round emergency service. The road, however, has faced decades of stiff opposition from Democrats who have sought to preserve the entire state as a kind of grand national park, protected from any further development. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSally Jewell made a horrible decision eight years ago, and it is the good people of King Cove who have paid the price,\u201d Murkowski <a href=\"https:\/\/www.murkowski.senate.gov\/press\/release\/king-cove-murkowski-mark-eight-years-and-157-medevacs_since-rejection-of-life-saving-road\">said<\/a> in December to mark the anniversary of the road\u2019s rejection, highlighting the 157 medevacs since then. \u201cIt is simply unconscionable that the federal government has failed to protect these Alaskans\u2019 health and safety, especially in the midst of a global pandemic that has made emergency medical access all the more critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haaland, however, departed King Cove with no hints of approval. One complicating factor is a land swap agreement the Trump administration sought to clear a pathway for construction of the road, which a federal judge struck down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can say that I\u2019m still in a learning process at the moment, and I don\u2019t have anything else to announce today about that decision,\u201d Haaland <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktoo.org\/2022\/04\/22\/haaland-visits-king-cove\/\">told<\/a> reporters on Thursday after touring the area with Murkowski and Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.<\/p>\n<p>It was far from the only time Murkowski\u2019s vote has failed Alaskans. <\/p>\n<h2>Haaland Keeps Oil and Gas in the Ground<\/h2>\n<p>Upon completing her first trip to Alaska, Secretary Haaland left with a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/powerthefuture.com\/haalands-parting-gift-to-alaska-locking-up-the-states-national-petroleum-reserve\/\">parting gift<\/a>\u201d of more Washington restrictions, declaring that millions more acres that were once open to oil and gas exploration would be locked under environmental regulation.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Interior Department\u2019s Bureau of Land Management, which is now run by an <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/01\/senate-democrats-confirm-domestic-terrorist-tracy-stone-manning-to-lead-bureau-of-land-management\/\">ecoterrorist<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blm.gov\/press-release\/following-january-announcement-bureau-land-management-issues-record-decision-national\">announced<\/a> it would reverse Trump-era efforts to expand oil and gas operations in Alaska\u2019s National Petroleum Reserve, shutting off 7 million acres from development despite today\u2019s urgent need to drill.<\/p>\n<p>The decision frustrated Murkowski, who\u2019s made Arctic oil and gas exploration a top priority of her time in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need more domestic resource development, and areas explicitly designed for that purpose should be at the top of the list, not the chopping block,\u201d Murkowski said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.murkowski.senate.gov\/press\/release\/blms-npr-a-plan-harms-american-energy-security-ignores-alaskan-voices\">press release<\/a>. \u201cIt is simply shocking that the Biden administration can look at the world, and decide that Alaska is where \u2018keep it in the ground\u2019 should apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At this point, however, the announcement should come as no surprise. In October, the Biden administration decided to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktoo.org\/2021\/10\/21\/biden-administration-lets-stand-a-judgment-thwarting-willow-a-conocophillips-drilling-project-in-arctic\/\">let stand<\/a> a judge\u2019s ruling to strip permits for the Willow Project in the same reserve. Approved under President Donald Trump in 2020, the 30-year plan from ConocoPhillips to develop five drilling sites would have been the largest single extraction project on federal land. <\/p>\n<p>Soon after his inauguration, Biden also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/06\/01\/biden-to-cancel-oil-and-gas-leases-in-alaskan-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge\/\">canceled<\/a> leases and restored protections in the neighboring Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, choking off 4-12 billion barrels of oil under the frozen tundra, <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.usgs.gov\/fs\/fs-0028-01\/fs-0028-01.htm\">according<\/a> to estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey. The Interior Department under Haaland subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/03\/biden-administration-opens-up-pandoras-box-with-new-environmental-review-for-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-leases\/\">announced<\/a> further environmental reviews despite their prior completion under the National Environmental Policy Act, long held as the gold standard for assessing environmental effects. <\/p>\n<p>Democrats want to make reinstated restrictions <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/29\/a-ban-on-arctic-drilling-remains-in-democrats-new-reconciliation-framework-while-gas-prices-soar\/\">permanent<\/a> for the refuge, which was opened for drilling under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The portion of the tax bill that gave the green light for drilling in a small stretch of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was authored by Murkowski, whose vote for Haaland has now killed it.<\/p>\n<h2>No Development in the Tongass National Forest<\/h2>\n<p>Murkowski has long lobbied for a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktoo.org\/2019\/08\/16\/murkowski-supports-a-complete-exemption-for-tongass-from-roadless-rule\/\">complete exemption<\/a>\u201d from the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest, but Haaland has come out on top in this fight too.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump-era Alaska Roadless Rule, passed in the final days of his administration, exempted the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska from a Clinton-era <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/roadmain\/roadless\/2001roadlessrule\">prohibition<\/a> on \u201croad construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting.\u201d The Biden administration, however, reversed Trump\u2019s decision and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-environment\/2021\/06\/11\/tongass-roadless-rule\/\">reinstated protections<\/a> to cover the more than 9-million-acre national forest, the largest in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Although managed by the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture, the resource conflict over Tongass highlights another area where Murkowski has failed to elicit Democratic concessions in Washington despite her efforts at bipartisan compromise.<\/p>\n<h2>Murkowski\u2019s Political Blowback<\/h2>\n<p>Murkowski\u2019s support for Haaland played a major role in the Alaska Republican Party\u2019s vote in March last year to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/16\/alaska-gop-censures-sen-lisa-murkowski-pledges-support-for-primary-challenge\/\">censure<\/a> the senator and pledge an endorsement of a primary opponent. Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner in the Alaska Department of Administration, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/29\/alaska-sen-lisa-murkowski-draws-first-major-primary-challenger\/\">jumped<\/a> into the race two weeks later, aiming to unseat Murkowski in the August primary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaaland\u2019s visit should serve as a reminder that she would not be the Interior secretary without Murkowski\u2019s tie-breaking committee vote to advance her nomination to final confirmation,\u201d Tshibaka told The Federalist. \u201cEveryone should be clear on exactly why Deb Haaland has chosen this moment to visit Alaska: She\u2019s been dispatched by President Joe Biden to try to provide cover for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been the chief enabler of the Biden administration, which has targeted Alaska\u2019s economy for destruction since his very first day in office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pressed in February on whether she would change her vote on Haaland given the chance, Murkowski couldn\u2019t provide a straight answer. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to change her mind on the decisions that [Haaland] has made that have negatively impacted the state of Alaska,\u201d Murkowski <a href=\"https:\/\/mustreadalaska.com\/murkowski-deb-haaland-does-what-white-house-tells-her-to-do-and-we-are-where-we-are-with-biden\/\">told<\/a> state lawmakers. \u201cWhether it\u2019s with regards to the [National Petroleum Reserve], or in regards to what we\u2019re seeing with yet another pause on oil and gas. I\u2019m planning on changing her mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incumbent senator, who is running for re-election to a fourth full term this year, scapegoated Biden, not Haaland, for the Interior Department\u2019s aversion to Alaskan development. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeb Haaland is perhaps not the mastermind behind much of this,\u201d she said at the state capitol. \u201cEven if we could do a do-over on Deb Haaland, I don\u2019t believe for a minute we would be in a much better position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maybe not, but when asked how a Republican Senate could be effective under this administration, GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had a better answer. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiden ran as a moderate,\u201d McConnell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mcconnell-democrats-beating-midterms\">said<\/a> on Fox News Sunday earlier this month. \u201cIf I\u2019m the majority leader in the Senate, and [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House, we\u2019ll make sure Joe Biden is a moderate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead of applying pressure to pick a centrist nominee, Murkowski opted to bless a nominee whose <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/02\/23\/biden-cabinet-nominee-deb-haaland-is-the-trojan-horse-of-radicalism-republicans-warned-about\/\">radical record was clear<\/a> from her one term in Congress in hopes of getting concessions, none of which have come to pass. <\/p>\n<p>Haaland <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepDebHaaland\/status\/1321494642186244102?s=20&#038;t=PB9lz2UGWnDd6hAFBBqNUw\">protested<\/a> the Trump administration\u2019s plans to lift restrictions on the Tongass National Forest months before her nomination, drew praise as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AOC\/status\/1339655338593808394?s=20\">champion<\/a>\u201d of the Green New Deal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., by advocating for rapid decarbonization of the American economy, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/nation-world\/interior-pick-haaland-draws-gop-ire-with-fracking-opposition\/\">proclaimed<\/a> she was \u201cwholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands\u201d prior to her confirmation. But Murkowski says Haaland isn\u2019t the \u201cmastermind\u201d behind the Biden climate agenda? <\/p>\n<p>The administration has only doubled down on its animosity toward domestic energy production, to Alaska\u2019s detriment, as energy prices soar to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&#038;s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&#038;f=m\">record levels<\/a> in the Biden economy. Earlier this month, Haaland\u2019s Interior Department <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/04\/16\/biden-raises-cost-of-domestic-oil-production-with-new-order-on-federal-leases\/\">announced<\/a> oil and gas leases would resume only to comply with a court order, offering only 20 percent of what was initially nominated for sale, complemented by a 50 percent spike in royalty fees. <\/p>\n<p>Murkowski might have been hoping for favors in return for her vote on Haaland. All Alaskans got, though, were more restrictions and higher taxes. <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was one of four Republican senators to cross party lines last year to vote for President Joe Biden\u2019s activist pick to lead the Department of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}