Congress

 

Senate

 

'We Will Get It Done': Senate Dems Vow Permitting Success. According to E&E News, “Senate Democrats are on a collision course with their House counterparts over permitting reform, as Senate leaders said Wednesday they still plan to advance the permitting bill by attaching it to a stopgap government funding measure. That announcement sets up a political fight with House progressives and Republicans wary of giving Democrats another legislative win — though Senate Republicans seem to be softening their stance. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) both reiterated Wednesday that they intend for the permitting measure, which would speed environmental reviews on energy projects, to hitch a ride on the funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR). The CR is a must-pass bill to keep the government open when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. That makes it an appealing vehicle for the permitting reform legislation Schumer agreed to as a condition of Manchin’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ massive new climate, health care and tax law. ‘Permitting reform is part of the IRA, and we will get it done,’ Schumer told reporters Wednesday. House progressives, however, say they don’t owe Manchin anything on the permitting measure, setting up a showdown at the end of the month. Even if leadership can secure 60 votes in the Senate, dozens of House Democrats have already come out against it, potentially derailing the combined permitting-stopgap spending bill in the lower chamber (E&E Daily, Sept. 6).” [E&E News, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

Manchin Says Leadership Pledged Permitting Reform In Stopgap Funding Bill. According to The Hill, “Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday that Democratic leadership told him the permitting reform he has pushed for will be included in a government funding measure known as a continuing resolution. ‘Permitting is in,’ he said. Asked Wednesday whether he was told by leadership that the reforms would be included in the funding measure, he answered affirmatively. The Senate swing vote has pushed for legislation that would speed up the process for approving energy and infrastructure projects. When Manchin announced his support for the Democrats’ climate, tax and health care bill, he and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement that they would separately pass a deal to reform the permitting process for these projects as part of the deal. But the push has come under fire from progressives, led by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who have raised concerns about the potential for undermining environmental reviews and helping the fossil fuel industry. Grijalva, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, has circulated a letter asking leadership to separate the Manchin deal out of the continuing resolution. His office told The Hill last week that they had more than 40 signatories so far and were still circulating at that time.” [The Hill, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Democrats Prep Federal Permitting Measure. According to Bloomberg Law, “Senate Democrats and Republicans expect to see bill text as soon as this week on forthcoming legislation Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is backing to streamline the federal permitting process for energy projects, Kellie Lunney reports. Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), who along with committee staff has been workshopping the language, wouldn’t comment Wednesday about the timing of the bill beyond saying, ‘ask me later this week.’ But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), ranking member of the panel, said she believes she’ll see the measure by the end of the week, and is open to potentially supporting ...” [Bloomberg Law, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

Chevron CEO Calls For US Permit Reform To Spur Energy Investment. According to Bloomberg Law, “Chevron Corp. threw its weight behind reforming the federal permit process for energy projects as Congress is slated to consider Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s plan to fast-track approvals from natural gas pipelines to wind farms. ‘If we had material reform it would send a signal to the industry to invest, to invest in infrastructure, to invest in production with the confidence that we actually could execute those investments,’ Chevron Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ‘It would be a very positive signal.’” [Bloomberg Law, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Hitching To Ride With CR. According to Politico, “Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed Wednesday that he planned to attach legislation to ease permitting to the continuing resolution that lawmakers will need to pass to fund the government past Sept. 30. The permitting measure emerged as part of a deal Democratic leaders struck with Sen. Joe Manchin to win his vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. The White House also recently requested lawmakers include $6.5 billion as part of the funding bill to help respond to natural disasters, as well as $2 billion to supply uranium for U.S. nuclear reactors and modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told reporters the disaster aid would likely be included in the CR — echoing aides familiar with the negotiations who spoke to POLITICO. Senate Minority Whip John Thune suggested that Republicans could potentially get on board with supporting the aid, in part because those disasters affect Republican states like Kentucky.” [Politico, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

GOP Warming To Permitting? According to Politico, “Republican senators, meanwhile, are softening their resistance to supporting the permitting updates after initially vowing to oppose the proposal because they were upset that Manchin helped Democrats pass their climate legislation using the reconciliation process. ‘I am certainly open minded to it,’ Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told ME on Wednesday, a statement echoed by Manchin’s fellow West Virginian, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who said she is ‘ready to see’ and review bill text. Other Republicans said they doubted the Manchin-Schumer permitting bill would amount to serious changes to the permitting rules, but are nonetheless willing to accept measures that make it easier to build both clean energy and fossil fuel projects. ‘Clearly we need permitting reform if we are going to go forward, whatever type of energy you are speaking of,’ Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told ME. ‘Anything is better than nothing.’” [Politico, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

House

 

U.S. House Members Raise Doubts About Manchin Environmental Permitting Deal. According to Virginia Mercury, “More than 50 U.S. House members are objecting to a push to revise federal environmental permitting requirements for energy projects — part of a deal Democratic leaders struck with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III to win passage of their climate, health and taxes bill that passed last month. The House members signed onto a letter led by House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat aligned with the party’s progressive wing. The letter urges House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland to omit permitting legislation from a must-pass spending bill this month. Congressional leaders have not released text of a permitting bill, but a one-page summary last month indicated it would set time limits on agency reviews and environmental litigation challenging energy projects, designate high-priority projects for fast-track reviews and require completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in the run-up to a vote on Democrats’ $750 billion budget bill that he had pledged to Manchin, a moderate Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, that the Senate would take up a separate bill reforming environmental permitting. Schumer said he didn’t generally like limiting environmental reviews, but that the deal was worth it to ensure passage of the Democrats’ bill that would spend $370 billion on clean energy programs, marking the greatest federal investment to date in addressing climate change.” [Virginia Mercury, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Dems Ask Biden For More Tribal Power Over Public Lands. According to E&E News, “House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and dozens of other congressional Democrats are asking President Joe Biden to expand Native American co-management of federal lands, following last spring’s action at Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. In a letter Wednesday, the Democrats said expanded tribal co-management of federal lands and waters is a necessary step to address past ‘significant injustices perpetrated against the Indigenous Peoples of the United States by colonial powers and the U.S. Federal Government.’ The letter cited the ground-breaking cooperative agreement this summer with five Native American tribes to share oversight of Bears Ears with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service (Greenwire, June 21). The five tribes, which played a major role in convincing then-President Barack Obama in 2016 to establish the 1.36-million-acre national monument, are currently working with BLM and the Forest Service to develop a new management plan. The lawmakers told Biden that co-management aligns with the ‘administration’s priorities of addressing historic and environmental injustices, advancing equity and opportunity for Indigenous communities, and respecting the nation-to-nation commitment of the federal trust relationship.’ The Democrats cited a March Natural Resources hearing on the dispossession of tribal lands. Tribal leaders endorsed Congress formally giving Native American tribes more power to co-manage public land with federal agencies (E&E Daily, March 9).” [E&E News, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

Department of the Interior (DOI)

 

Haaland Visits Mojave Desert Lands Amid Monument Push. According to E&E News, “Interior Secretary Deb Haaland today visited public lands in the Mojave Desert that advocates are pushing the Biden administration to designate as a national monument. Haaland — along with cadre of top officials including Nevada Rep. Susie Lee (D), Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Laura Daniel-Davis, and Bureau of Land Management Nevada State Director Jon Raby — met with members of the Fort Mojave Tribal Council, who have called for a new monument honoring the ‘place of origin’ for 10 Yuman-speaking tribes (Greenwire, Oct. 19, 2021). The site is known as Avi Kwa Ame (pronounced Ah-VEE kwa-meh), the Mojave name for Spirit Mountain and its surrounding lands. Although the National Park Service added Spirit Mountain to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, as a traditional cultural property, proponents of the monument assert that designation alone falls short in protecting the larger area, some 380,000 acres or more. An Interior spokesperson declined to answer questions about whether Haaland supports a new national monument on the site or if she has made any recommendations to President Biden. ‘During the visit, the group witnessed the rich biological diversity from the region, including some of the largest Joshua Trees in Nevada. The public lands also provide a wide variety of recreational experiences to the public, including hiking and birding,’ the Interior Department said in a news release detailing the trip.” [E&E News, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Trump-Era Oil And Gas Leases In Montana And The Dakotas Could Be Invalidated, Thanks To Settlement. According to Daily Kos, “Every single time the American Petroleum Institute (API) is mad about something, it’s a great thing for anyone standing up to the oil and gas companies it represents. The latest victory against the API is a settlement that was reached on Tuesday between the Bureau of Land Management and environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, and the Sierra Club. The settlement concerns Trump-era leasing decisions pertaining to 113 oil and gas leases in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Under the settlement, those sales, which make up 58,617 acres of public land, will undergo additional National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review to consider all the environmental concerns the Trump administration missed in issuing those leases. The API and the state of Wyoming, where the decision was reached, stand firmly against the move, and both argue that it could financially harm the companies doing business on those public lands, according to the Associated Press. That concern is comical considering all the harm the many companies behind API cause to the planet. The Bureau of Land Management’s willingness to block drilling as it reassesses those leases is a welcomed sign to the environmental groups fighting this battle. For Taylor McKinnon with the Center for Biological Diversity, it shows ‘that the Biden administration has wide latitude to rein in federal fossil fuels’ and that the administration could very well invalidate the sales themselves.” [Daily Kos, 9/7/22 (+)]

 

Biden Admin Settles With Eco Groups To Block Massive Oil Drilling Leases. According to Fox Business, “The Biden administration entered a legal settlement Tuesday evening with environmental groups, agreeing to block drilling on more than 58,000 acres of public land. The federal government will refrain from issuing any drilling permits across 113 leases spanning 58,617 acres in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota under the settlement between the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the coalition of organizations led by the WildEarth Guardians and Sierra Club. ‘Today’s agreement opens the door for the Biden administration to undo the Trump administration’s recklessness and disregard for the climate and public interest,’ Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director of the WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement Wednesday. ‘Oil and gas leasing is completely at odds with climate action, we applaud the administration for agreeing to do the right thing,’ Nichols said. The Bureau of Land Management — the DOI subagency tasked with managing public lands — agreed to conduct an additional environmental and climate impact analysis before issuing a final decision on the future of drilling permits on the leases. The analysis will be conducted in accordance with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s April 2021 order prioritizing climate change as a consideration in such reviews.” [Fox Business, 9/7/22 (-)]

 

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)

 

California Urges BOEM To Revise Offshore Wind Fishery-Mitigation Guide. According to InsideEPA, “California agencies and state fishing industry groups are urging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to overhaul its draft guidance for mitigating offshore wind energy impacts to fisheries, in part by recognizing that floating turbines required on the West Coast present unique challenges compared with East Coast facilities. ‘While we recognize the need for a national mitigation framework, the draft Guidance lacks specificity in terms of regional differences in commercial and recreational fisheries and the varying mitigation needs that those differences will require,’ say officials with five California agencies in Aug. 22 comments to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. ‘Consequently, we recommend that the Guidance acknowledge the role of regional and state efforts for establishing region-specific mitigation measures for commercial and recreational fisheries.’ For example, it is important that BOEM ‘address the differences between fixed and floating wind energy facility designs and how that could change potential impacts to fisheries, and in turn potential mitigation and compensation measures,’ the agencies continue. ‘It is highly likely that floating platforms attached to mooring lines anchored to the seabed will be the sole technology used by the offshore wind industry in California and the entire West Coast, and as such, the current draft Guidance lacks sufficient mitigation guidelines for a rapidly expanding portion of the future U.S. offshore wind industry.’ The letter is signed by the heads of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Energy Commission, California Coastal Commission, Ocean Protection Council, and State Lands Commission.” [InsideEPA, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Courts & Legal

 

‘Quirky’ Oil Leasing Court Win For Biden To Have Limited Impact. According to Bloomberg Law, “The Biden administration’s win in a federal court case challenging its avoidance of quarterly oil and gas lease sales on public lands will have limited impact on future industry pushback against leasing decisions, natural resources lawyers say. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management didn’t break the Mineral Leasing Act when it decided to postpone quarterly oil and gas lease sales after President Joe Biden declared an oil and gas leasing ‘pause’ in January 2021, Judge Scott Skavdahl of the US District Court of the District of Wyoming ruled on Sept. 2.” [Bloomberg Law, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

States & Local

 

New Mexico

 

Oil And Gas Lease Ban Upheld In Court, Could Set Stage For Future Block In New Mexico. According to Carlsbad Current-Argus, “A federal judge upheld the government’s authority to block oil and gas leases on public land in New Mexico and other states after the administration of President Joe Biden did so upon assuming office in 2021. At the start of Biden’s tenure in office, the U.S. Department of Interior imposed a temporary halt on new federal oil and gas leases, seeking to reform its fossil fuel programs and intending to address the environmental impacts of extraction. The move drew immediate outcry from the oil and gas industry and its supporters, with several Republican-led states not including New Mexico suing the DOI and asserting the block on new leases was illegal under federal law. That summer, the DOI completed its review and sought to increase royalty rates and address pollution during an expanded review process that was also subsequently challenged in separate litigation. Lease sales resumed in New Mexico, with the Bureau of Land Management conducted a sale June 30, 2022 after reconducting its environmental reviews and imposed an increased royalty rate of 18.75 percent from the past rate of 12.5 percent. … Melissa Hornbeing, senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center said the federal government should conduct any lease sales without adequate environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). ‘We find it reassuring that the court affirmed the Bureau of Land Management’s authority to postpone oil and gas lease sales in order to make certain they adhere to the law,’ she said. ‘The judge called out as nonsensical the state and industry group’s argument that postponing a lease to ensure compliance with NEPA requires a NEPA analysis of its own.” [Carlsbad Current-Argus, 9/8/22 (=)]

 

Oil And Gas To Add $10B To New Mexico Economy By 2050, Report Says. Is Growth Sustainable? According to Carlsbad Current-Argus, “Oil and gas’ contribution to New Mexico’s economy could grow by more than $10 billion in the next 30 years, per a recent industry report, as operations grow in the Permian Basin in the state’s southeast corner. … Taxes and royalty payments sent to the local and state governments from oil and gas totaled $3.3 billion last year in New Mexico, per the report. From federal mineral leases, the report showed New Mexico gained about $809 million to its General Fund last year, with funds from fossil fuel production averaging about 30 percent of revenue to that fund primarily used for the state’s budget. Royalties paid on operations on New Mexico’s State Trust land are earmarked for the Land Grant Permanent Fund, which received about $1.2 billion in industry revenue last year, the report read. Another $576.6 million in oil and gas revenue from sales tax receipts went to the State, while $518.2 million went to local governments in New Mexico, the report read. Those funds support public services and education, the report read, and any disruption of such economic activity could mean higher costs for residents of both states that contain the Permian Basin. ‘These funds support public schools, state universities, roadways and state services,’ read the report. ‘Without these valuable contributions, the cost of state services and education would increase, placing a major tax burden on Texas and New Mexico residents, and dramatically raising the cost of college tuition.’” [Carlsbad Current-Argus, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

North Dakota

 

Interior To Reconsider Social Cost Of Greenhouse Gas In Dakota Oil Leases. According to Reuters, “The Biden administration has agreed to consider the climate impacts and the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions in a new environmental review of oil and gas leases in Montana and the Dakotas, according to a settlement with conservation groups. The government agreed in a court filing Tuesday to carry out fresh environmental reviews to settle a lawsuit the groups filed in early 2021 claiming the original analysis for leasing on 58,000 acres failed to consider how drilling would impact groundwater or how its cumulative impacts would contribute to climate change. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management also agreed to consider the so-called social cost of carbon associated with the leasing, which is a calculation that attempts to place a dollar amount on the climate consequences of oil and gas development. The U.S. currently puts that cost at around $51 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The settlement blocks drilling on those tracts already leased out by the Trump administration in 2019 and 2020 until the Bureau of Land Management completes its new review. ‘Certainly they’re doing the right thing by going back and doing another look but I think there’s a lot of work to be done before we can celebrate,’ said Tom Delehanty of Earthjustice, who represents plaintiffs the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and others. BLM declined to comment. The settlement comes as the Biden administration grapples with a global energy crisis but also campaign promises to end drilling on federal lands.” [Reuters, 9/7/22 (=)]

 

Virginia

 

EPA Puts Virginia On Notice For Long-Overdue Air Pollution Plan. According to The Washington Informer, “Virginia joined a list of 15 states in receiving official notices from the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to submit plans to reduce air pollution late last month. In fact, the notices—which the EPA issued August 25—come more than a year after the actual submission deadline and four months after national environmental groups filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit’s filers, including the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and the National Parks Conservation Association, charged the EPA with failure to enforce the Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze Rule. The rule aims to reduce air pollution that affects visibility in wildlife refuges or national parks, but Mary-Stuart Torbeck, a Virginia representative of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said the impacts go far beyond park boundaries. ‘The same sources of pollutants that are causing the haze in our national parks are also disproportionately affecting the communities near these sources,’ Torbeck said. ‘These are communities that most often are living below the poverty line, and are communities of color.’ Virginia has two sites impacted by the Regional Haze Rule, Shenandoah National Park and the James River Face Wilderness area, and 32 industrial polluters that could be contributing to problems there, Torbeck said. ‘It is not surprising to me that Virginia did not submit a plan to reduce pollution,’ Torbeck said. ‘Currently, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Secretary of Natural [and Historic] Resources’ office are pursuing ways to roll back important measures that we put into place to reduce air pollution in Virginia.’” [The Washington Informer, 9/6/22 (=)]

 

 

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