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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Hit With Ethics Complaint After Stripping Oil And Gas Opportunities From Navajo Nation
The Federalist ^ | 08/18/2023 | Tristan Justice

Posted on 08/18/2023 8:00:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind


YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK / FLICKR

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was hit with an ethics complaint Thursday over her controversial decision to choke off hundreds of thousands of acres in New Mexico from oil and gas development.

The government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed the complaint with the Interior Department inspector general’s office, citing the secretary’s prior activism to eliminate opportunities for exploration in the same area.

“In June 2, 2023, Secretary Haaland withdrew public lands from future fuel leases within the Greater Chaco area,” read the complaint. “Somah Haaland, Secretary Haaland’s child, is a prominent member of an activist organization that lobbied federal officials seeking to restrict oil and gas leasing in the area.”

Somah Haaland works for the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), an Albuquerque-based climate group. Prior to Deb Haaland’s cabinet appointment, the secretary gave testimony to a film narrated by Somah that opposed drilling in the area.

“Given her past statements, participation in this film, and her child’s active role in lobbying against oil and gas development in the region, reasonable observers could question Secretary Haaland’s impartiality in the matter,” wrote PPT.

Secretary Haaland’s husband, Skip Sayre, is also the chief of sales and marketing for the Laguna Development Corporation, the “business arm” of Haaland’s tribe that has long opposed development in the region.

In June, the Interior Department drew a 10-mile protective radius around Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. The area is now barred from any new oil and gas leases over the next 20 years. House Republicans launched their own investigation into the Interior secretary’s conflicts of interest days after the announcement.

“Efforts to protect the Chaco landscape have been ongoing for decades, as Tribal communities have raised concerns about the impacts that new development would have on areas of deep cultural connection,” Haaland said in a press release at the time. “I value and appreciate the many Tribal leaders, elected officials, and stakeholders who have persisted in their work to conserve this special area.”

The 10-mile buffer, however, was put in place despite objections from local residents and a nearby tribe that hoped to capitalize on the natural resources.

In May, the nearby Navajo Nation had voted to reject the administration’s plans to withdraw 351,000 acres from opportunities for leasing. According to the Western Energy Alliance (WEA), an industry trade group that represents small independent producers, the agency’s decision in June will cost the tribe more than $194 million over the next two decades.

“Secretary Haaland has a conflict of interest as a member of the Laguna Pueblo that has been pushing for the very outcome on Chaco that she signed off on. Plus, her own daughter has lobbied her agency and members of Congress for that same outcome,” WEA President Kathleen Sgamma said in response to Thursday’s complaint. “As Secretary of the Interior, she has an obligation to balance the interests of all tribes, and not favor just one side.”



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: New Mexico
KEYWORDS: energy; haaland; navajo; newmexico; oil
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1 posted on 08/18/2023 8:00:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT)

Yep, good idea. Deny native Americans a good paying job, raise the cost of energy to all Americans, keep importing oil and making us dependent on outside oil, all in one deadly swipe of the pen. Typical gov't screw-up.

2 posted on 08/18/2023 8:04:55 AM PDT by econjack
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To: SeekAndFind

Little Debbie speak with for-ked tongue. There’s no ethics in politics!


3 posted on 08/18/2023 8:05:16 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Welcome to Amerika! Have you filed a lawsuit today?)
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To: SeekAndFind

How honest of her. /sarc She should not be in that position to steal.


4 posted on 08/18/2023 8:06:20 AM PDT by madison10
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To: SeekAndFind

Haaland is one more self-loathing RACIST Democrat.


5 posted on 08/18/2023 8:16:45 AM PDT by alstewartfan ("She looks like she's 19 years old, sitting there like a lady with her legs crossed." Creepy Joe)
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To: SeekAndFind; SunkenCiv
A ten mile buffer doesn't seem terribly restrictive. That strikes me as a reasonable distance to protect this site.

I just looked up photos of the Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. These are amazing ruins. It is incredible people could have lived in the arid southwest.


6 posted on 08/18/2023 8:19:20 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (We are proles, they are nobility.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The old inter-tribal conflicts continue.


7 posted on 08/18/2023 8:21:24 AM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: SeekAndFind

See if this shoe fits

terrorists and multinational criminal organizations,,

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+

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learn

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with out

the Marxists in the United States

help.

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and their commie spawn are still in our government.

They are on the cusp of handing our country and the world to the CCP.

This is the history our public schools made sure we never heard.

Push this out to everyone


8 posted on 08/18/2023 8:30:12 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: econjack

These poor people.
Navajo reservation that is mostly high planes desert.
They minded their own business, mostly agriculture, for decades.
When their country called, the went to assist and fought along side the people that dismissed them and ignored them.
They try to get out of poverty with ‘shows’ ‘tours’ and ‘gambling’ and jewelry sales. Still forgotten by the Federal Government.

Then, they find oil and gas. Instead of worthless tracts of desert, they actually have a commodity they can sell to help their people. Biden and the Democrats made them promises.

The promises were empty betrayals and lies. Biden and his goons blocked the tribes ability to profit from the their resources. They called it ‘federal’ land, not Navajo land, in perhaps the biggest insult they could have every done, so they couldn’t drill and sell oil and gas.

I wonder how many wish they they had supported Trump?


9 posted on 08/18/2023 8:37:10 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: SeekAndFind

Sounds like the Navajo Nation needs to go to war with the Laguna Pueblo tribe over natural resources, as was usual before the white man came.


10 posted on 08/18/2023 8:39:00 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals)
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To: Pete Dovgan

What other race/ethnicity has a whole chapter in the US Code directed solely at them? 25 USC is entitled “Indians”. I never understood why that has never been held as wildly discriminatory. Maybe it was needed way back when this country was settled, but why wasn’t the 14th Amendment protections extended to them when that was passed? Do you know that it is STILL illegal to do business with Native Americans without Bureau of Indian Affairs permission? The fact that it is not enforced does not excuse the discriminatory action that is codified in this Nation’s laws. The Navajo did phenomenally great things for us in WWII and other conflicts and Dims treat them like fecal matter. Hopefully this disrespect shown by Bribeme will change their voting preference in 24.


11 posted on 08/18/2023 8:50:45 AM PDT by jpp113
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To: SeekAndFind

Deb Haaland

\/

A commie in action.


12 posted on 08/18/2023 8:53:15 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: SeekAndFind

Harland unethical; granhold unethical; butt gig unethical; cori bush unethical...

Anyone notice a pattern?

Yeah, me neither.


13 posted on 08/18/2023 10:39:08 AM PDT by DPMD (ua)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

As long as the grass shall grow and the eagle fly.

Sure.

It used to take firewater to corrupt Indians. They’ve upped their price; now it’s a job with the great father.


14 posted on 08/18/2023 10:40:32 AM PDT by DPMD (ua)
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To: Pete Dovgan

Just recall the Osage murders in Oklahoma, portrayed in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Ironically, back then, the FB of PS actually did its job.


15 posted on 08/18/2023 10:42:14 AM PDT by DPMD (ua)
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To: DPMD

That incident was what formed the FBI, prior to that it was just called the Bureau of Investigation with a very limited portfolio.


16 posted on 08/18/2023 10:44:59 AM PDT by Reily (!!)
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To: Pete Dovgan

The Navajo reservation is like a third-world country, very poor.

In the nearby Southern Ute reservation (Colorado) the residents are wealthy, people there are happy, and they have state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. They allow and appreciate oil drilling on their reservation.

Google them and see the difference between the two reservations.

And yes, the Navajos always vote for democrats.


17 posted on 08/18/2023 10:53:29 AM PDT by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“It is incredible people could have lived in the arid southwest.”

The climate has changed. The Sahara used to be lush.


18 posted on 08/18/2023 11:12:20 AM PDT by dljordan
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To: DPMD

Don’t know how much you know about Indian Casino but the Mafia has to be totally PO’d that they can get away with that crap.


19 posted on 08/18/2023 11:13:27 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Welcome to Amerika! Have you filed a lawsuit today?)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
From the Wikipedia write up:
Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginning with a fifty-year drought commencing in 1130.

Imagine that! Climate change occurring before Al Gore arrived on the scene.

20 posted on 08/18/2023 4:47:04 PM PDT by CedarDave (Pfizer's boosters: Side effects make it the medical equivalent of Russian roulette!)
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