Yesterday, Patagonia’s head of global communications, Corley Kenna, joined Accountable.US and two members of the House of Representatives for a press conference in support of Rep. Deb Haaland’s nomination to lead the U.S. Interior Department.
Click here to read the press release from Accountable.US.
The following are Corley’s full remarks:
Hello everyone. My name is Corley Kenna and I lead the communications team at Patagonia, and I am joining you today from the ancestral lands of the Chumash, also known as the central coast of California. Thank you to the team at Accountable for organizing this call.
Patagonia strongly supports Deb Haaland to be the next Secretary of the Interior because we need a proven leader to advocate for our shared public lands. Our planet is in a crisis, and emissions from oil and gas leasing on our shared public lands contributes 25% of our country’s total greenhouse gass emissions. We need a leader who will make our public lands part of a solution to the climate crisis rather than a major contributor to the problem.
Every year, we witness another storm of the century, the biggest wildfire in history, record-breaking droughts, wildlife going extinct and entire communities having to relocate all because of the climate crisis. And yet, some of our leaders are still arguing over the basic facts about what is causing and worsening this crisis.
The two Senators — Senators Barasso and Daines — who have announced their opposition to Representative Haaland’s nomination even before she has had a hearing, are speaking for the oil and gas industry that has enjoyed nearly limitless access to our public lands for generations.
The oil and gas industry is the top financial contributor to Senator Barasso. And if you listen to what he talks about in DC, you’d think the oil and gas industry is just about the only employer in his state. But it’s well documented that there are more people employed by the outdoor recreation industry in Wyoming than the oil and gas sector. So when Senator Barasso says he is opposed to Rep. Haaland’s nomination based on job loss, it rings hollow. And Senator Daines, who was just reelected last year after repeatedly promising the people of Montana that he cared deeply about public lands, says he can’t support her because she wants to protect public lands!
The extractive industries have also been exceptionally effective in confusing communities about the science and realities of what happens when we only take from nature. They distort the truth around the often-deadly footprint that their businesses leave behind. And they massively exaggerate the relative size and importance of their industry. We need to set the record straight on jobs: The outdoor industry supports 6.1 million jobs in this country, compared with 2.1 million jobs supported by the oil and gas industry.
The Patagonia community knows firsthand that the more time you spend in nature, the more you want to protect it. And that nature gives us a lot of reasons to protect it: From combating the climate crisis to providing jobs and economic opportunity; from historic and cultural preservation to outdoor recreation. Patagonia has been in the business of protecting wild spaces since our company was founded nearly 50 years ago, and it is our driving purpose today: We’re in business to save our home planet.
Patagonia supports Representative Haaland to lead the Department of Interior because she knows that by protecting land and water we can build economic opportunity, empower Indigenous and local communities and slow the climate crisis.
She will be a leader who will not only manage our country’s natural resources, but also work to conserve our land for future generations. She will help transform Interior from a department prioritizing extractive industry profits to one protecting wild places and sustainable economic opportunity. Representative Haaland is a leader who will not only listen to but prioritize Indigenous voices — the original stewards of the natural world.
Representative Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th-generation New Mexican, is an especially inspired pick. She recognizes the ecological, recreational, economic and cultural benefits of public lands and waters and has been a leader in the protection of wild places such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Boundary Waters Wilderness Area and Bears Ears National Monument. Three places that are actively threatened and that millions of Americans want to see protected. Permanently.
Millions of American hunters, anglers, climbers, surfers, birdwatchers and dog walkers — and the millions of us employed by the outdoor industry — share a lot in common: we crave the natural spaces that our 640 million acres of public lands provide. We want more of them, not less. We want future generations to be able to enjoy them. We want a Department of the Interior that prioritizes the health of communities and wild places. Together, we support Representative Haaland and strongly urge swift confirmation from the Senate.