FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 8, 2021

MCV to Daines on Haaland nomination: ‘Your words ring hollow’

Conservation organization dings senator for threatening to block historic nominee

(BOZEMAN, Mont.) – Montana Conservation Voters is asking Senator Steve Daines to reconsider his threat to block Representative Deb Haaland’s nomination to serve as the nation’s next Secretary of the Interior.

Daines announced his position on Friday, saying the Congresswoman from New Mexico supports “several radical issues,” including opposition of the Keystone XL Pipeline and support for President Joe Biden’s temporary moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

“Your words about Rep. Haaland’s nomination, Senator Daines, ring hollow,” wrote Whitney Tawney, the Executive Director of Montana Conservation Voters. “They may be politically expedient for you, but they do not resonate with the best interests of the people of Montana.”

Tawney noted that Daines raised no concern during the embattled tenure of illegal Acting Director William Perry Pendley, a radical, anti-public lands crusader who ran the Bureau of Land Management for well over a year without a Senate confirmation.

“Montanans wish you had expressed concern over Acting Director Pendley’s radicalism like you are now with the nation’s first indigenous woman ever to be nominated to a cabinet position,” Tawney wrote.

Tawney added that the decision to halt the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, which was supposed to cross through eastern Montana, has already been made. She also highlighted recent government data showing “how little an impact” Biden’s oil and gas leasing moratorium actually has on jobs in Montana. More than 1.5 million acres of federal land in Montana are currently leased to developers, but more than 1 million of those acres remain undeveloped.

“We find your reasoning lacks substance and facts,” Tawney continued. “Rep. Haaland is the experienced conservation champion we need at the helm of Interior. She will protect Montana’s outdoors by defending our natural resources, expanding our access to public lands, promoting sound resource and wildlife management, and serving as the federal government’s top liaison to tribal governments.”

MCV’s letter to Daines is available online HERE and appears below.

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