ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 10, 2023
In a sign of a deepening rift among Democrats on energy issues, conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says he will not move forward on President Biden’s nominee to oversee oil and gas leasing at the Interior Department. Manchin chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and has a great influence on energy and environmental issues in the closely divided Senate. In an op-ed Friday, he cited a leaked memo signed by nominee Laura Daniel-Davis that proposed charging oil companies higher rates for drilling off the Alaska coast. The dispute over Daniel-Davis’s nomination comes as climate activists are outraged that Biden appears open to the huge Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, which they call a “carbon bomb” that would break his campaign pledge to curtail oil drilling on public lands and waters.