When Republicans won control of the U.S. House in last November’s elections, they said that energy policy would be one of their top priorities. They said that high gas prices, the war in Ukraine and moves by the Biden administration to limit oil and gas exploration and extraction on federal lands demanded action to accelerate domestic energy production at home.

Now they are moving to make good on their promises, vowing to bring to the full House this week H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act.

The bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), would require the Department of the Interior to conduct additional sales of oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf and reduce royalty rates for new onshore oil and gas leases. It also would repeal some clean energy programs at the Energy Department and EPA that were enacted last year as part of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Most critically for the CRM industry, the bill would make significant changes to permitting laws, in some cases weakening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and excluding certain projects from Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).

The bill would codify into law reforms made to NEPA by the Trump administration in 2020, which were subsequently rescinded by President Biden when he assumed office. The reforms exempted classes of federal actions from NEPA review and restricted the types of project effects that are examined during the NEPA review process. In addition, they allowed agencies to exclude projects from a NEPA review if they determined another process or statute will cover stakeholder concerns. This gave agencies unilateral discretion over which projects merit review under NEPA, limiting the public’s ability to raise concerns about impacts to historic properties. The Trump plan also significantly expedited the NEPA review process, bypassing or reducing time arbitrarily to implement many of the steps that allowed agencies to listen to, address, and remedy public objections to a project’s impacts.

With respect to Section 106, H.R. 1 provides that companies would not be required to obtain a federal drilling permit for oil and gas exploration, or for geothermal and production activities, on non-federal land where the U.S. owns less than 50% of the subsurface mineral estate and there is a state permit. In other words, such actions would not be subject to 106.

Recognizing the potential harm that H.R. 1 would do to the nation’s preservation laws, ACRA has joined with its allies in the preservation community on a letter to Congress expressing its opposition to the bill. The letter states:

While changes and limitations to supporting documentation for federal reviews may appear on its face to create permitting efficiencies, such an approach risks longer-term unintended consequences by limiting public disclosure and evaluation of adverse impacts. The result would put our nation’s communities, and their cultural and historic resources, at risk. Without the benefit of careful review and consideration of these unprecedented changes by Congress, we are concerned that the proposed federal permitting provisions will erode government accountability and unreasonably limit public participation.

The letter goes on to say that a better way to improve the federal permitting process would be “through greater federal investments in staffing and in modernizing the way historic and cultural resources are documented and made available to the public. Support for nationwide survey and digitization of historic resources through the Historic Preservation Fund would improve public access to information and allow for earlier and more efficient review of federal undertakings under the NHPA.”

Although H.R. 1 is likely to pass the House this week, its prospects in the Senate are dim. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) called it “as bad and partisan as it gets.” That said, Senators from both parties – as well as President Biden – have expressed support for some reforms to the permitting process, which means that there is a decent chance permitting laws may change this year.

Join Us in DC To Speak Out for CRM

Permitting reform and the importance of protecting Section 106 will be one of the topics that ACRA members will bring to their elected representatives during ACRA’s annual Capitol Hill Fly-In April 25-26, 2023. For the first time since the pandemic began, ACRA members are going to meet with their House and Senate representatives in person in Washington, DC.

ACRA will arrange meetings and provide training beforehand. There is no cost to register for the Fly-In, but attendees are responsible for making your travel and lodging accommodations.

Please sign up today and show your support for the CRM industry!