As President Biden works to solidify his cabinet, Wyoming's U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis filed to block Deb Haaland's appointment as Secretary of the Interior earlier this week.
She said that her nomination is good for the American Indian community but not for Wyoming.
Lummis said that Wyoming has already been compromising with renewables like wind energy.
"We are compromising. Have you driven between Cheyenne and Laramie lately? There's an enormous wind farm on an industrial scale. And there are huge industrial sized wind farms going up all over the state," Lummis said.
President Biden enacted an order to stop extractive energy contracts on public lands. This affects Wyoming more than other states because of our reliance on the energy industry for revenue and jobs. Right now 68 percent of Wyoming's minerals are on federal land.
Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary would oversee federal public land management but also the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Haaland would be the first time a Native American would head the department.
Lummis said that she thinks the Biden administration is hostile towards the energy industry.
"We want to be able to point out to the White House, to the Democrats, to the American people, and specifically to our state. That this is an administration that is hostile to public land states," she said.
