Dirty “Energy Week” Gives Big Oil the House Floor

Regardless of how frustrating the hyper-partisanship in our federal, state, and local politics has become, to our detriment, we still have to know what all their posturing, stonewalling, and dis- and misinformation mean in real-life consequences. For most of us, the purposely vague language presented as law or regulation is too confusing, and survival/life/family takes most of our waking hours. 

It’s standard practice to confound and hide real motives and agendas. As we’ve seen and have been directly affected by many more of these bills in the last few years, codifying the laws and regulations that leave a door open for interpretation if these are meant to limit or prevent unnecessary harm, protect established rights, etc., for our protection from the most powerful industries.

This past week has been another stark example of the exponentially strong influence of the very industries that continue to exert their power to eliminate all manner of opposition – methods, laws, common sense, and truth – when it serves them. 

In addition to passing a fiscal omnibus with bi-partisan support, and thereby narrowly avoiding another government shutdown – House Republicans, along party line, passed several dirty energy bills, concluding a week-long onslaught of legislation dubbed “energy week” by GOP members. 

They also passed two resolutions that essentially aired their unreasonable grievances and misinformation to placate and rile up the most radical factions of the party. 

The package of Republican-led energy bills (below) contains robust industry giveaways that would undermine recent climate gains in the Clean Water Act, override important rule-making in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and unnecessarily restrict the President’s authority to prohibit dangerous fossil fuel production. 

Despite all the political challenges that their constituents and the whole country need Congress to address, the Republicans in the House Oversight Committee were not phased and went ahead with another smoke-n-mirror act by kicking off the so-called “energy week” with yet another investigation request around President Biden’s LNG export pause. 

This round of political posturing began in January, when Biden directed the DOE to pause all new applications for LNG exports to non-Free Trade Agreement countries to investigate the climate impacts of exports. 

While you review the bills below, keep in mind that after passing the House, these dirty “energy week” bills still face an uphill battle against the Democratic-controlled Senate and the President’s authorization. And remember, the resolutions are just for show.

H. Res. 987, the resolution “denouncing the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration.” 

• Calls for increased domestic drilling and extraction–specifically including Chaco Canyon, Black Hills National Forest, the Thompson Divide, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Superior National Forest, and offshore Gulf of Mexico.
• Denounces climate initiatives from the Biden administration.

H.R. 7023, from Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.), the “Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act.” 

• Includes extreme rollbacks of Clean Water Act protections and expedited permitting that would specifically target Indigenous lands and resources with projects such as the Pebble Mine, Dakota Access Pipeline, and Mountain Valley Pipeline.
• Limits EPA’s ability to issue water quality standards by replacing the use of guidance for water standards with formal rulemaking, slowing implementation and creating a new avenue for legal challenges to water quality standards.
• Codifies “general” permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which allows industry to discharge pollutants into waterways. General permitting reduces safeguards, excludes public input, and ignores local considerations and context. 
• Shields polluters from Clean Water Act liability for pollutants even if the pollutants are not provided for in the permit, including lead, mercury, selenium, and arsenic.
• Minimizes review of large and potentially harmful projects by restricting consideration of the scope, scale, and cumulative effects of a project that uses nationwide permits, which is a review standard intended only for projects with minimal adverse impacts. The bill also exempts the nationwide permit re-issuance process from Endangered Species or NEPA review.
• Imposes an unreasonable statute of limitations of just 60 days for court review of dredge and fill permits, destroying important wetlands, streams, and waterways.

H.R. 6009, from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), the “Restoring American Energy Dominance Act.” 

• Withdraws the BLM’s proposed rulemaking for oil and gas production on public lands, which was directed by the Inflation Reduction Act. The widely supported proposed rule would raise royalty rates for oil and gas production on public lands, increase minimum bond amounts to ensure oil and gas companies pay to clean up their sites, and prevent leasing near critical habitats or Indigenous cultural resources. 
• Attempts to permanently prevent the Department of Interior from issuing any other similar rules for oil and gas leasing on public lands in the future.

H.R. 1121, from Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), the “Protecting American Energy Production Act.”

• Prohibits the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, despite President Biden indicating that he is on the side of big oil when it comes to fracking.

H.R. 1023, from Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), the “Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act.” 

• Repeals the Inflation Reduction Act’s $27 billion greenhouse gas reduction fund, immediately halting all unobligated funding. 
• Repeals the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, which addresses methane waste and leakage and charges a fee for facilities that waste methane. 
• President Biden promised to veto this bill if it ever reaches his desk.

Additionally on Friday, rounding out the week-long party for big oil, 16 red states filed a federal lawsuit challenging the President’s authority to issue the LNG pause. Even though just four months ago at COP28 in December, the United States joined nearly 200 other countries in a historic agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels (though without providing a clear path to just implementation or a commitment to actually phase out fossil fuels), the GOP continues to show unwavering support for ever-increasing fossil fuel expansion and production.