Why did Murkowski advance the nomination of the Department of Interiors top lawyer?
On June 1, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland signed a secretarial order in which she suspended the processing of leases the Bureau of Land Management has issued for oil and gas exploration on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In the order, Secretary Haaland said she did so because, prior to issuing the leases, the Bureau did not fully comply with the legal requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act and in the law Congress passed in 2017 that directed the Department of the Interior to hold two oil and gas lease sales for land on the coastal plain.