![]() ![]() She has worked to boost consultation efforts with tribal governments, allocate more resources to help address the alarming rate of disappearances and deaths among Native Americans, and launched an investigation into the federal government's role in boarding schools that sought to assimilate Native children over decades. Haaland's heritage as a member of Laguna Pueblo makes her unlike any previous secretary, and she's aware of the added expectations from Indian Country as she leads an agency with a fraught and even murderous history with Native tribes. And we do our best, as I said, to balance whatever the project is - using the science, using the law." Their lifestyles are different and it's up to us to make sure that we get them to the table to tell us what's important to them," she said. Native American tribes are not always pleased with the outcome, she acknowledged. "We have to take each one individually and find the best solution that we can." "There isn't a one-size-fits-all for any of these things," she said. What gets conserved and how is at the root of a few thorny projects Haaland must navigate, from the Willow project to a drilling moratorium around a national park near northwestern New Mexico's Chaco Canyon, and now protests by Native American tribes over a proposed lithium mine in Nevada. Many of Biden's ideals about climate change, renewable energy and conservation mirrored her own. Haaland said she had an idea of what the Cabinet job might entail, having served in Congress and as a member of Joe Biden's platform committee when he was the Democratic presidential nominee. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico did not get a response from Haaland when asking when the first utility-scale offshore wind projects would be permitted Haaland defended the Biden administration's priorities, reiterating that her department was following the law and was on track to meet the administration's goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.īut even some Democratic senators who support more wind and solar energy development have questioned that timeline, saying some projects take years to be permitted and could be at risk. Critics say the Interior Department under her guidance had failed to conduct quarterly oil and gas lease sales as required under law, doubled the time it takes to get permits, and raised royalty rates charged to energy companies to discourage domestic production and advance the administration's climate goals. House committee opened an investigation into ties between Haaland and an Indigenous group from her home state of New Mexico that advocates for halting oil and gas production on public lands.īoth Democratic and Republican members of Congress also have grilled her about her agency's $19 billion budget request. Environmentalists slammed her department's approval of the massive Willow oil project in Alaska, while a Republican-led U.S. ![]() I really do want to find a balance."Ĭriticism of Haaland has mounted in recent weeks. "There is a process, so I am dedicated to that. It doesn't mean that that's the decision that's going to be made," said Haaland, 62, sitting in the shade of the towering cottonwood trees that line her backyard in Albuquerque. "I might feel one way about an issue personally. The hardest part? Balancing the interests of every single American, she said. Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member in the U.S., spoke to The Associated Press about her tenure leading the 70,000-employee agency that oversees subsurface minerals and millions of acres of public land. ![]()
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