Dan Sullivan heaps praise on Janet Yellen, but votes against her for treasury

Sen. Dan Sullivan praised Janet Yellen as a good choice to be Treasury Secretary as he gave a 10-minute lecture in the Senate Monday about why he wanted to be one of the first to congratulate her and why he thinks she was the wrong person for the job.

Yellen was confirmed on an 84-15 vote, the first woman to hold the job. Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted for her, while Sullivan was one of the 15.

Yellen has the qualifications, the credentials and the experience to lead the Treasury Department, Sullivan said.

“I mean, her resume is off the charts, and I know her nomination is historic for so many women across the country, including my three daughters,” said Sullivan.

But Sullivan voted against Yellen because she is not a cheerleader for the fossil fuel industry.

While speaking about the economic virtues of fossil fuels and patriotism, Sullivan never mentioned carbon emissions, climate change, or the threat of a warming world to the future of the United States and the world, which is important for so many women across the country, including his three daughters.

Sullivan said that “every secretary of the treasury since Alexander Hamilton has been a robust supporter of resource development,” neglecting to mention that Hamilton served in the position many decades before the first oil well in the U.S.

Sullivan said he thought it was a “no-brainer” that any head of the treasury would support fossil fuels, along with all other forms of energy.

“But despite a long respectful debate with now Secretary Yellen, who I certainly want to have a good relationship with, could not get that commitment, which I thought was surprising.”

“As a matter of fact, I thought it was shocking, and it’s was the reason I reluctantly voted no because again she is very qualified.”

“One of the reasons we won World War II is because of our energy sector. And the men and women who have been producing energy, all-of-the-above energy are great patriotic workers who have been doing it for decades to the benefit of every single American,” he said.

“But we need a debate. because what I'm starting to see with the new administration, unfortunately—and I've had discussions and hopefully they're not going to go down this path—is executive actions that are going to target certain sectors of the energy sector of the U.S. economy.”

“Natural gas. We can be dominant in natural gas for a hundred years. We're going to start targeting workers in the natural gas sector? Oil. I know some people don't like oil but it's important. We can do all of this, but right now there seems to be hostility towards this sector and the workers and no debate.”

He equated a lack of support for fossil fuels with a decision to “unilaterally disarm.”

“We've gotten to the point where I can't find anyone—and I hope I'm wrong— in the Biden administration cabinet who's going to be a proponent of a strong energy sector. Who is it?”

“I was hoping it was going to be the Secretary of the Treasury. Maybe in our long discussion I misinterpreted where she's going to be on this issue, but pretty much every previous secretary, Democrat, Republican, in the history of our great nation has really, really been an advocate for the men and women who work in this sector and for the economic growth it brings.”

“We've had a big scare back home in my state. All weekend I was working this issue of these executive orders from the Biden administration, where it looked like it was going to send hundreds of people home unemployed. Oil and gas workers in my state. Why? I hope that's not the case, especially during a recession, but we need a debate on it, and I certainly hope somebody in this administration, when there are principals meetings, talk about how we get good jobs, strong working class.”

Responding to Sullivan’s speech, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, correctly noted that Sullivan never mentioned climate change or carbon emissions in his remarks.

Sullivan wants a debate on fossil fuels, but not on climate change or carbon emissions.

“You can't just whistle past those things, Madam President, and pretend that they're not real and act as if we can continue to go forward the way we always have, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, poisoning our oceans with acidification, warming the planet, putting coastal communities like mine at grave risk from sea-level rise and storm surge,” Whitehouse said.

He said the country must “make sure that not only is our energy mix strong for our economy but to make absolutely sure that we are not sacrificing the safety of our planet, the economic security of our future generations, the health of people all around the planet, who have really no choice but to live close to the land and feel the pounding of climate change in their immediate lives every day.”

“We have to address those things. and I hope we will,” he said.

Whitehouse said he knows that the “state of Alaska is getting hit by the acidification and warming side, by the sea-level rise and storm-surge side of this problem, just as much as Rhode Island is. And perhaps because, as my friend constantly reminds me, Alaska has a huge advantage of size over Rhode Island, one could even imagine that they're having more of an effect than Rhode Island.”