(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A top Biden official offered an alarming excuse for why her agency failed to notify Congress and a key state of a crucial policy change, as reported by the Daily Caller.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning astonishingly claimed that the agency was too overwhelmed to inform Alaska about new energy and mining restrictions.
These remarks came during a heated exchange with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala, at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, highlighting the administration’s apparent disregard for transparency and communication.
“BLM is restricting development wherever and however it can,” Murkowski told Stone-Manning, according to the Daily Caller. “We’ve seen this in our petroleum reserve, we’ve seen this in the Tenor 2 area, with the public land orders, resource management plans, the rejection of the Ambler Access project, it feels like an onslaught to me.”
.@BLMNational is restricting development however and wherever it can: in our petroleum reserve and the 1002 Area, through Public Land Orders and Resource Management Plans, by rejecting the Ambler Access Project… it feels like an onslaught, because it is one. pic.twitter.com/NFIM5fufk6
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) June 13, 2024
Murkowski emphasized the Biden administration’s recent reversal of Public Land Order (PLO) 5150, revealing that she was informed of the decision only a day before by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
“I don’t understand how you can sit here and how those in your department, all up to the Secretary can sit here and make these empty promises and break them whenever you feel like you want to break them,” Murkowski lashed out at Stone-Manning. “So, I want to know, who canceled BLM’s commitment to move forward on the state of Alaska’s compromise on PLL 5150 and if it wasn’t you, who was it?”
Murkowski did not hold back, condemning Stone-Manning for providing “zero word” notice about the policy reversal.
“My conversation with the commissioner last week was about how we’re up against some timing issues and some workload issues throughout the department,” Stone-Manning claimed as Murkowski interrupted to ask a question, “Our plates are full and that we’re not moving forward with the EA in the timeline that we had originally.”
