Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, before I begin my speech, I just want to tell the American people, you are not hearing all the truth on this. Sometimes my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will try to repeat things, mislead the American people. It is rinse, lather, repeat. The American people are smarter than that.

H.R. 1 is a priority for this Conference. It helps to modernize the permitting process.

Madam Chair, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1, Majority Leader Scalise's Lower Energy Costs Act, a bill I am an original cosponsor of, helped to write, and a bill America needs now more than ever.

I am also pleased that the House Natural Resources Committee received primary jurisdiction. I thank the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Transportation and Infrastructure for their important contributions as well.

Americans put Republicans in control of the House, in part, because we campaigned on making life more affordable and making it easier to build. We want to let miners mine, farmers farm, builders build, and let small businesses succeed. However, under today's permitting scheme, that is all but impossible.

In the district I represent, we have a proposed mine that would provide a huge resource of copper, nickel, cobalt, a huge resource of those critical minerals that we need, and it is on year 20 of permitting and litigation. It has a signed project labor agreement, committed to domestic union labor for the mine's construction.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle at every turn reject that mine as well as this administration does. This mine has won every lawsuit thrown its way, but further frivolous litigation and endless bureaucracy continue to mire the project year after year. We can help to build the energy transition with domestic minerals mined by Minnesotans, but the permitting bureaucracy stands in the way.

That is why I am proud that my own legislation, which has 33 cosponsors, the Permitting for Mining Needs Act, is included in the base text.

PERMIT-MN creates what miners want. They want certainty. It limits frivolous litigation, puts in place commonsense review timelines, and just puts American miners to work, whether they are in Minnesota, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, California, or anywhere else.

This is about so much more than mining. If you are at all serious about emissions reduction, you will vote to support H.R. 1.

Why? Because right now, for example, it takes years to decades to permit transmission projects that will add wind and solar to the grid.

At our February 9 oversight hearing on permitting, American Clean Power testified that failure to enact permitting reforms puts an estimated 100 gigawatts of clean energy projects at risk.

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Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, that means risking $100 billion worth of investment and 150,000 potential jobs in the clean energy sector.

In the Natural Resources Committee, we have a real tangible example. At our February 28 legislative hearing on my colleague Garret Graves' BUILDER Act, Dairyland Power testified about the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line. This transmission line, which will put more wind power on the grid, is about 103 miles long, but it is locked in year 7 of permitting.

We need to pass H.R. 1 for energy independence and critical mineral dominance.

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