washington the white house is withdrawing its planned nomination of elizabeth klein to become deputy secretary at the interior department amid opposition from alaska republican sen lisa murkowski klein who worked at interior during the obama administration was among five women named by thenpresidentelect joe biden to serve as deputy secretaries in the biden administration but she was never formally nominated and now wont be a white house spokesman said tuesday kleins withdrawal was first reported by politico instead biden is expected to name tommy beaudreau another former obamaera interior official to be deputy secretary according to two people familiar with the presidents thinking they spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about a nomination that has not occurred beaudreau is a former interior department chief of staff and served as the firstever director of the bureau of ocean energy management an agency created after the disastrous bp oil spill in the gulf of mexico in 2010 just as important politically is that beaudreau grew up in alaska and is politically close to murkowski a former chair of the senate energy and natural resources committee who holds great sway over oil drilling endangered species and other interior department issues beaudreaus appointment is widely seen as an attempt to win favor from murkowski a moderate who is one of the few senate republicans willing to side with democrats on contentious issues murkowski voted to convict former president donald trump during his second impeachment trial opposed supreme court justice brett kavanaugh and helped shut down the republican effort to repeal the affordable care act murkowskis office did not respond to requests for comment but two people familiar with the matter said murkowski was concerned that the progressive klein would not be a sufficient counterweight to new interior secretary deb haaland a liberal former congresswoman who has criticized the oil and gas industry murkowski was one four gop senators who voted in favor of haaland the first native american cabinet head but said she struggled with her decision citing haalands views on oil drilling and other resource development alaskas prosperity is directly linked to decisions made by interior murkowski said beaudreau is currently a lawyer in the washington office of latham watkins and a member of the firms environment land resources department he took over the agency that oversees offshore oil and gas drilling in 2010 despite having no oil and gas industry experience he told ee news in a 2013 interview that growing up in alaska where his family moved when he was a child was crucial to his new role i know how important resource development is to the state its the economic blood of the state but i also know how important the outdoors are to everyone in alaska everyone in alaska wants to see that preserved and protected he said beaudreau later served as chief of staff under former interior secretary sally jewell klein also served at interior during the obama