A leaked internal memo from the Biden administration — which revealed officials prioritized climate change over energy security — could force the White House to pull the plug on a major candidate.
In the Nov. 25 memo, former Bureau of Ocean Energy Management director Amanda Lefton recommended that the Department of the Interior (DOI) charge energy companies a royalty rate of 18.75%, the highest rate allowed under law, for an offshore project of 958,202 hectares. oil and gas lease sales in alaska. Lefton acknowledged in the recommendation that charging a lower rate of 16.67% would likely “provide more energy security” but would not be a good explanation for climate change.
“While a 16 ⅔ percent royalty is more likely to allow rapid and orderly development of OCS resources and may provide greater energy security to residents of the state of Alaska, a reasonable balance of environmental and economic factors favors the maximum 18 ¾ percent royalty on Cook Inlet leases,” Lefton wrote in the memo.
The memo was addressed to Laura Daniel-Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the DOI, who eventually signed the 18.75% recommendation into a public decree a day later without mentioning the energy security analysis of lower royalty rates. On December 30, the DOI held the lease sale, winning a single bid worth $63,983 for a 2,304-acre tract.
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Laura Daniel-Davis, candidate for Assistant Secretary of the Interior, testifies at her Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing on February 8, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
But Daniel-Davis’ involvement in prioritizing the Biden administration’s environmental goals over “greater energy security” could threaten her impending appointment as DOI deputy secretary for land and minerals management, a position of power that her oversight of major oil and gas decisions. . Her nomination, which has been delayed for two years, is still before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
On Friday, after the memo was leaked, committee chair Joe Manchin, DW.Va., indicated that he may not endorse Daniel-Davis in a potentially fatal blow to her nomination.
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“The contents of this memo speak volumes – if this is what this administration really believes and how they are going to make decisions, then that is unacceptable,” Manchin said in a statement Friday. “It is a clear and deliberate threat to energy security, and Congress has consistently endorsed all of the aforementioned energy policies.”
“I will not support anyone who agrees with this kind of misguided reasoning.”
President Biden first nominated Daniel-Davis for the position in June 2021. She has since appeared in two confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but fell two votes to pass her nomination to a ballot on the floor. The White House announced on January 23 that it would resubmit the nomination to the Senate.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, DW.Va., who is key to moving the nomination from Daniel-Davis, said he would not support anyone who believes the “misguided reasoning” in the memo . (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Republicans on the committee, meanwhile, have redoubled their opposition to Daniel-Davis in the wake of the memo leaked last week.
“Under the leadership of Laura Daniel-Davis, (DOI) has been working overtime to halt U.S. oil and natural gas development on federal lands,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the leading member of the panel, tweeted Friday. “All (GOP Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources) voted against her confirmation in the last Congress. Her nomination should be rescinded immediately.”
Fellow Republican committee members Sens. James Risch of Idaho and Steve Daines of Montana agreed that the memo was the final reason the nomination should be withdrawn.
“I was against Laura Daniel-Davis’s nomination in 2021 and 2022. If her nomination isn’t withdrawn — as it absolutely should be — I will oppose it again in 2023,” Risch told Fox News Digital. “This report from the Department of the Interior confirms my existing concerns about her flawed policy views and further disqualifies Daniel-Davis from serving in this important role.”
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“Laura Daniel-Davis’s nomination should have been withdrawn a year ago when she first failed the committee,” Daines added in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The latest assault on oil and gas comes as no surprise. The Biden administration, its out-of-control nominees and Senate Democrats have long put the cult of climate change above energy security and local communities.”
Senate Judiciary Committee on Energy and Natural Resources ranking member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Daniel-Davis’s nomination “should be rescinded immediately.” (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Barrasso and the other Republican members of the committee wrote a letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, to Daniel-Davis on Feb. 28, demanding that she respond to a series of previously asked questions that she said she had not answered. They also criticized her for collaborating with Democrats to evade a third confirmation hearing.
In a separate letter on Monday, Barrasso questioned Daniel-Davis about her statement at a confirmation hearing in 2021 that the Biden administration had approved more than 9,000 fossil fuel drilling permits that have not been used by the industry. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently acknowledged that the figure, also repeated by Biden and senior White House officials, was incorrect.
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“I am deeply concerned about the discrepancy in BLM data as this appears to be anything but an honest error,” Barrasso wrote. “You have a responsibility to ensure that statistics made available to the public, such as this permitted data, are complete and accurate. You have failed on both counts and the American public has been misled as a result.”
And in September, the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust filed an ethics complaint against Daniel-Davis, accusing her of violating conflict of interest laws related to the DOI’s 2021 move to an oil and gas lease break at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The group said her previous position with an environmental group may have influenced its actions.
The DOI declined to comment and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.