First oil

The Biden administration continues to nominate people for senior positions that all seem to hate oil and gas. If one were bent on destroying the U.S. oil and gas industry, you’d be hard put to nominate people more diabolically effective at doing it than “Joltin’ Joe’s” cast of characters.

The latest example of Biden’s personnel philosophy (or is it just senility or cognitive dysfunction?) is his refusal to withdraw the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to be director of the Bureau of Land Management, which has authority over oil and gas leases on federal lands, even though she had connections to eco-terrorist group, Earth First. According to many media reports, Stone-Manning was a graduate student in 1989, when she mailed a letter to the U.S Forest Service, warning them that someone had spiked trees to prevent logging in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest. In 1993, she was granted immunity and testified against two men she knew, who were eventually convicted of the crime.

Tree spiking involves driving a nail or metal rod into a tree. When a logger saws into the tree and hits the spike, it can break the chain saw and send pieces of metal flying. Used by environmentalists to discourage timber harvesting in certain areas, this tactic was made illegal in 1988.

Senate Republicans say her responses to a Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee questionnaire were “false and misleading,” because she said she hadn’t been the target of an investigation. They cite a July 14th letter sent to the committee from retired investigator Michael Merkley, who was part of the original investigation. Merkley said Stone-Manning knew she was being investigated for the 1989 incident.

Democrats say that since then, Stone-Manning has built a model career in environmental policy, working as an aide to Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and as chief of staff to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), as well as head of Montana’s environment agency.

But do you want her running the BLM? This editor thinks not.

Meanwhile, her nomination was deadlocked in a 10-10 vote of the Senate Energy Committee on July 22. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) was among the 10 Democrats voting yes. Senator Manchin should know better. “It is hard to imagine a nominee more disqualified than Tracy Stone-Manning,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the committee’s top Republican, who was among 10 Republicans on the panel voting “no.” The committee’s 10-10 vote meant that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) needed to utilize a rarely used maneuver to “discharge” the nomination to the Senate floor.

Stone-Manning is the latest in a series of miserable Biden nominations, including Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy. Speaking of Haaland, she came to Stone-Manning’s defense. Why are we not surprised?

A great addition to our board. We are pleased to announce that we have added Leslie Beyer, President of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, to World Oil’s editorial advisory board. Leslie brings a wealth of industry experience to our board, and she has great analytical skills and judgment, when it comes to assessing important industry issues. We have worked with Leslie on several projects over the last few years, and we value her input and creativity.

Traditionally, the Council’s, and its predecessor’s (PESA) seat on our advisory board has been filled by its annual chairman. And most editorial items from the Council that appeared in World Oil in past years would be in that chairman’s name. However, most of what one chairman or another said was crafted by Leslie and her very capable staff. Accordingly, it only makes sense to have the originator of all these great thoughts be the Council’s representative on our advisory board. We look forward to working with Leslie and the Council staff even more closely.

About the Authors

Kurt Abraham

World Oil

Kurt Abraham kurt.abraham@worldoil.com