The Interior Department’s No. 2 is stepping down at month’s end, leaving open a role in the Biden administration that oversees some of its most controversial decisions on oil, energy and conservation.
Tommy Beaudreau, will leave after two years as deputy interior secretary, during which he oversaw the approval of the Willow Alaskan oil project and a deal to protect the Colorado River’s water supply. An energy lawyer who spent part of his childhood in Alaska, Beaudreau became a point person on the administration’s effort to overhaul mining rules, enhance conservation measures, and speedup the build out of renewable energy and transmission on federal lands.
He cited the need to have more time with his family after spending a total of 10 years at the agency during separate stints under the Obama and Biden administrations. A department spokeswoman declined to comment further or address how the department might replace him.
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“I love the Interior Department, and it has been the greatest honor and responsibility of my career to serve as Secretary [Deb] Haaland’s deputy in the Biden-Harris administration,” Beaudreau said in a statement. “I will always cherish the opportunities I’ve had to work with the best career staff in federal service.”
The role can be a political lightning rod, drawing attention from both climate activists and fossil-fuel advocates, including some powerful moderates in the U.S. Senate. The department oversees vast swaths of the country, and all oil, gas, wind and solar development on federally owned territory.
Beaudreau was nominated for the position after senators from fossil fuel-rich states derailed the White House’s first choice, Elizabeth Klein, now director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. He was confirmed by the Senate in an 88-9 vote in June 2021, with wide bipartisan support, including from Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
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Colleagues have said he was known as having a “balanced view” on fossil fuels and environmental protection.
David Hayes, who served as Interior deputy secretary under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as well as in the Biden White House, said that Beaudreau did “a great job” on the Colorado River negotiations, “providing high-level federal leadership when it was needed the most. He jumped in and engaged with the states and listened hard to their interests and concerns while sending tough messages about the need to address the Basin’s water-constrained climate reality.”
Beaudreau’s signature was on the final approval for the Alaskan oil project Willow, one of the largest oil developments ever on federal land and a source of repeated criticism of President Biden from climate activists. But the decision would also include what some estimated as one of the largest conservation moves in years, a new rule for a drilling ban and enhanced protections for nearly half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), the nation’s largest expanse of public land.
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The Interior Department noted that Beaudreau also helped implement billions of dollars in spending for infrastructure improvements approved under Biden, along with other major new conservation measures in Alaska and Minnesota. Haaland said in a statement that he influenced “every aspect” of the department’s work.
“He has been a valued counselor and friend,” she said. “His legacy will continue as we carry on our work to implement President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda and steward our public lands and waters for the American people.”
Beaudreau originally joined Interior Department in 2010 and served in several positions. That included an appointment in 2011 to be the first director of the newly formed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, created as part of a series of reforms that the department instituted after the Deepwater Horizon disaster that led to a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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