Murkowski – Unlike Senate Dems – Votes Against Eco-Terrorist for BLM Director

July 23, 2021

Yesterday’s Senate Energy & Natural Resources meeting was full of fireworks; or, as Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) called it, a ‘skunk fight’.  The subject?  The decision whether or not to advance eco-terrorist Tracy Stone-Manning’s nomination to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from committee and to a full vote of the Senate.

All ten committee Republicans had previously called for Stone-Manning to be disqualified as the nominee.  The ten Democrats on the committee continue to stand firm in their position that someone with a history of being involved – however directly or indirectly – as a tree spiker is the perfect choice to head up the federal agency with jurisdiction over – among other things – our nation’s forests.

Alaska’s Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, had already indicated their opposition to Stone-Manning, so it wasn’t surprising to hear Murkowski sternly speak out against her as the Committee deliberated.

Calling the fight over Stone-Manning “unfortunate”, she noted that Stone-Manning’s actions and “engagement with this act of tree spiking, eco-terrorism, is really, really disturbing.  And if we’re not all disturbed by that, we just need to look clear-eyed at it.” 

She then pivoted to another subject BLM has direct jurisdiction over, Public Land Orders, and how the Biden Administration has walked back progress in the decades-old fight to resolve Alaska’s dispute with the feds over land allotments.  She noted that she had concerns with how Stone-Manning “handled responses to my questions specifically as they relate to Public Land Orders in Alaska, and how it goes to, I think, her broader understanding of…multiple-use application on our public lands.  I think she has demonstrated…that when it comes to public-use mandates…she doesn’t have the balanced approach that I am looking for in a nominee that would have this portfolio.”

We applaud Senator Murkowski’s direct approach yesterday in calling out Tracy Stone-Manning as being unfit to hold the position as BLM Director.  We appreciate both of Alaska’s US Senators for standing up against Stone-Manning and her extreme, radical approaches to dealing with responsible development in the past.  Murkowski’s “no” vote in committee helped split the vote, 10-10.  It will now most likely go to the floor, where we expect Senators Murkowski and Sullivan to continue to oppose this eco-terrorist.