Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of Boebert amendment No. 127. One of the main goals of the Lower Energy Costs Act is to create certainty in the Federal permitting process for those looking to invest in and build projects that will power our future.

Litigation is one of the main drivers of the uncertainty and delays associated with the NEPA process that holds back critical energy and infrastructure projects. This amendment revises the time frame within which a claimant can file a lawsuit seeking review of a permit, license, or approval issued by a Federal agency for a major infrastructure project, such as a highway project, from 150 to 90 days.

The purpose is to allow critical infrastructure projects to proceed more efficiently without the prolonged threat of a lawsuit that could delay or halt these essential transportation projects.

This amendment still allows a potential claimant a reasonable time frame of 3 months to file a lawsuit and does not impact environmental protections.

I support this amendment and encourage my colleagues to support its inclusion in the bill.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment. We have spoken about the link between hard rock minerals and national security today, but there is one resource highlighted by this amendment that must be discussed, and that is uranium.

Domestic uranium is essential for national security, given its role in nuclear deterrence and empowering the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

Uranium also supports the United States biomedical community because it is vital to the production of medical isotopes.

As the gentleman has pointed out, the majority of our uranium supply comes from Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries, unfortunately.

We have ample deposits of uranium here in the United States. We just have to mine it and process it, and we need to use more of it to create more nuclear power.

I thank the gentleman for bringing this amendment. I support it.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I oppose this unnecessary amendment as it would strike a provision in the bill that reinforces current law and requires the Bureau of Land Management to resolve protests to oil and gas lease sales within 60 days of payment by the winning bidder.

This amendment proposes a standard of accountability for Federal agencies that is worse than the status quo. In current practice, the BLM resolves most protests before lease sales even occur.

For example, when the BLM's New Mexico State office received formal protests for their June 30, 2022, oil and gas lease sale, BLM was able to review and respond to the protests by June 29, completing the process in 42 days and before the sale even occurred.

Once a lease is bid on and won, current law requires leases to be issued within 60 days following payment by the successful bidder.

This amendment strikes a good governance provision that does nothing more than reaffirms current law.

Just yesterday, DOI Secretary Deb Haaland testified before the House Appropriations Committee where she stated: ``Energy independence is a priority to President Biden.''

If energy independence is a priority to President Biden, then House Democrats should not be taking our Nation backward. Let's not undo current law that is actually working.

For those reasons, I oppose this amendment, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in opposition.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I encourage opposition to this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I rise today in strong support of this amendment. This amendment will prohibit the Communist Party of China from acquiring any interest in American farmland or lands used for American renewable energy production.

China has been aggressively acquiring foreign agricultural and energy assets around the world, and the United States has not been immune to this trend. Our country's food security and energy independence are at stake, and we must take action to protect our critical resources.

In 2013, a Chinese company purchased 300 acres of farmland in North Dakota. This acquisition caused concern among farmers and policymakers in North Dakota and beyond.

This amendment directly addresses these concerns by prohibiting the Communist Party of China, or any person acting on its behalf, from acquiring any interest in American farmland or lands used for American energy production.

It is crucial that we learn from past experiences and take necessary measures to protect our domestic resources and ensure our food security and energy independence.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and join me in protecting our critical resources, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, again, I support this amendment by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Feenstra), and I encourage my colleagues to support it.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, this amendment would require the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Commerce to determine the technological needs for their respective permitting programs and report those needs to Congress annually.

The permitting process can be a significant barrier to economic development and innovation in our country, made even worse if outdated technology and bureaucratic inefficiencies are hindering the process.

While far from a total solution to our Nation's permitting woes, identifying technological deficiencies that contribute to inefficiencies could help Congress prioritize scarce resources to modernize the permitting process.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment. It is well known by now that foreign nations, China in particular, are dominating global supply chains for hardrock minerals like copper, nickel, lithium, and dozens of others.

China's overwhelming presence in the minerals marketplace is not due to an inherent advantage in mineral reserves but instead is the result of a decades-long strategy to take control of dozens of commodities, from mining to manufacturing.

For instance, China's ``go global'' strategy, which began in the 1990s, included $390 billion in outbound direct investments in the mining sector.

Today, China is the primary global supplier of cobalt for batteries, despite having very limited domestic reserves, through its aggressive investment and processing capacity and foreign direct investment in mines around the world.

China also has billions invested in nickel projects in Indonesia, home to one-quarter of overall global reserves.

Nickel and cobalt are only two out of dozens of minerals that will see surging demand in the coming years. Examples of China's mineral dominance go on and on.

Just yesterday, DOI Secretary Haaland testified before the House Appropriations Committee, where she agreed that electric vehicles and renewables deepen our dependence on China. Congressman Reschenthaler specifically asked Secretary Haaland if electric vehicles and renewables deepen our dependence on China, and she replied yes.

We must not put China over America. We must return our Nation to energy independence. H.R. 1 combats the crisis of Chinese control of the global mineral supply chain.

My colleague's amendment is a great addition to H.R. 1. The amendment directs the U.S. Geological Survey and the Departments of Defense, Energy, and State to identify the mineral supply chains needed for military, defense, and national security purposes that are at greatest risk of disruption because of China.

Once identified, the administration must develop a strategy to bring these supply chains back to the United States, including through bolstering U.S. domestic mining, refining, processing, and manufacturing.

This amendment speaks to the core of the bill under consideration today, the need to increase the domestic production of energy and minerals, a critical part of maintaining our national security.

I support this amendment, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting its inclusion in the package.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment. The provisions of this bill, such as Representative Graves' BUILDER Act, would streamline the inefficient and costly NEPA process. It is costly in more than just dollars. It is costly to our environment. It is costly in human lives.

As the gentleman explained, we can do better managing our forests. When we keep these forests healthy, we are protecting human life. We are protecting property. We are also protecting the very, very thing that does more to support and help the environment than anything else, and it is our forest.

It is a tragedy that we send up so much of our forest in smoke. This NEPA process, although it is streamlining, will help to produce more domestic energy. It will also help to build infrastructure. It will help to take care of our national forest and Federal lands.

Madam Chair, this is a good amendment. I support it, and I encourage others to support it.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman not only for yielding me time but for bringing another commonsense and good amendment that makes H.R. 1 even a better bill.

As he mentioned, similar provisions were enacted in 2018 to allow electric transmission or distribution facility operators to remove hazard trees that can threaten infrastructure and start a catastrophic wildfire. That is what this amendment was built on.

Madam Chair, I have been to California. I have been to South Lake Tahoe. I have seen the efforts and the fruits of the labor in the field from the work of my colleague from California (Mr. LaMalfa) and our colleague Mr. McClintock, who worked so hard to be able to get this provision in previous legislation.

This has been used to thin the timber on power lines. Actually, these provisions have helped stop wildfires from spreading. This works. This should be added to, and we should be doing it everywhere we can to prevent these catastrophic wildfires like the folks in California and other parts of the West see all too often.

Madam Chair, I support this amendment, and I encourage everyone else to support it.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, this amendment requires local units of the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Forest Service to open job positions related to permitting or natural resources, including at local high schools, community colleges, universities, and other institutions.

Madam Chair, I just have to commend the gentlewoman's district. I was recently in the town of Hobbs, New Mexico, and I got to visit an amazing facility called CTECH that is used to educate future workers in that area. I have seen a lot of career and technical education facilities, and this one is second to none.

It was funded by the industry in the oil and gas business. They gave back to the community and built this remarkable facility. I believe they said over 1,000 high school students per year are using this facility. These are the places that are educating these future workers, and these jobs should be advertised there.

We have heard from multiple sectors, including in the energy, mining, and renewable energy spaces, about the permitting challenges they face, and those challenges are magnified by a lack of sufficient qualified personnel in State and local land management offices.

This amendment tasks the administration with performing outreach to local schools and other institutions to help fill open positions in their local offices.

While it is far from a total solution to the permitting challenges in our country, this amendment could help improve permitting backlogs and provide employment opportunities at the local level, including in rural areas.

Madam Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for her amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his visit to my district. I also invite the gentleman to the northern part because, at New Mexico Highlands University, we have an excellent forestry department where we are looking at the center of excellence. I know the gentleman's interest in forestry.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I oppose this amendment, which would strike provisions in the bill to incentivize responsible domestic energy production, create jobs, and reduce energy costs for American families.

This amendment would preserve the higher royalty rates for oil and gas on Federal lands and waters that were just recently raised by my colleagues across the aisle.

Democrat talking points ignore the reality of what it takes to produce energy on Federal lands, while at the same time advocating for increased royalties that will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher energy costs.

The House Natural Resources Committee held a field hearing for H.R. 1 last month where we heard directly from operators that produce on Federal, State, and private lands. Unfortunately, none of our Democrat colleagues came with us to participate in that hearing or they would have heard the facts.

It takes less than a week to obtain a drilling permit from the States of Texas or New Mexico, and it takes over 180 days to obtain a permit from the BLM. That is just one drilling permit. Operators sometimes need 30 to 50 permits and right-of-ways from a Federal agency to develop a project on Federal lands.

It is these delays and inefficiencies that demonstrate why the royalty rate should be lower on Federal lands. The simple truth is, the lower the royalty rate, the more interest there will be in energy production, the greater our Nation's energy security, and the cheaper energy process will be for all Americans. The Democrats know this.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration confirmed this fact in a leaked Bureau of Ocean Energy Management memo on Cook Inlet lease sale 258. Their own memo noted that a lower ``16\2/3\ percent royalty may be more likely to facilitate expeditious and orderly development of OCS resources and potentially offer greater energy security to residents of the State of Alaska.'' That was from the Biden BOEM administration.

Madam Chair, because I believe in promoting American energy security and reducing our reliance on foreign adversaries for energy and mineral resources that we should be producing here in America, I oppose this amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I encourage my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, as much as I appreciate Mr. Levin and his real sincerity and work on the committee, on this bill, and his expertise in this area, I must oppose this amendment tonight and hope to work with him on some additional legislation in the future.

This amendment would strike all of the provisions in division B that increase domestic energy production and reduce energy costs for American families. This amendment prevents division B from going into effect until all of the Federal agencies impacted certify that they have adequate funding and staffing to meet the timelines in the bill.

In response, I ask a simple question: When has a Federal bureaucracy ever felt it has enough staff on its payroll or enough taxpayer dollars to spend in its budget?

The answer is never, at least not as long as I have been in Congress and I have talked to Federal agencies.

Even with the spending push by the Democrats in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act--they have stated several times during the debate on H.R. 1 that they have put a billion dollars out there to speed up permitting--these Federal agencies are still asking for more money and more staff, and permitting timelines are still ballooning.

Why?

Because the issue is not an issue of staffing or budget alone. The underlying statutes and the processes are broken, and they must be fixed. That is what H.R. 1 does. It addresses the underlying issues, and it will expedite permitting for all kinds of projects.

This messaging amendment would prevent meaningful reforms in the name of growing the Federal bureaucracy. For these reasons, I oppose this amendment, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in opposition.

Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I urge opposition to this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I also thank her as a freshman Member for her proactive work on the committee.

Representative Luna's amendment requires the Comptroller General to have a report on all potential adverse effects of wind energy development in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the South Atlantic, and the Straits of Florida planning areas.

Until this report is published, the Secretary of the Interior is prohibited from publishing a notice or holding a lease sale for wind energy developments in the area.

As she stated, the report must evaluate the potential impacts of wind energy development on military readiness and training activities, on the marine environment, ecology and tourism, including the economic impacts on communities adjacent to the planning areas.

We cannot compromise our military readiness and training activities, which are crucial for national security.

By requiring a Comptroller General report, we can make informed decisions about the potential impacts of wind energy development on our national security, marine environment, and local economies.

Therefore, I support this amendment and urge my colleagues to vote in favor of it.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I again thank the gentlewoman from Florida for yielding time.

I rise in support of this amendment. The renewable energy sector is a rapidly growing part of our Nation's energy mix.

We have seen positive growth in wind energy and we hope to see it evolve into a subsector of American energy exports one day.

To achieve this goal, we need to promote the development of a strong domestic supply chain for wind infrastructure.

This amendment is a constructive step in that direction and expresses the sense of Congress that we should develop our own domestic supply chains rather than import critical components from China.

This amendment aims to prioritize the development of related industries through port upgrades, cable manufacturing, and hiring of vessels and crews for wind energy operations in the United States.

By promoting domestic production and expanding our supply chain, we can create jobs, enhance our energy security, and strengthen our economy.

Representative Luna's amendment will not only support our energy goals but also promote economic prosperity.

I support this amendment as this policy is a positive step toward the development of a strong and secure domestic supply chain for wind infrastructure. I also encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Ms. Lee of Florida) having assumed the chair, Mrs. Kim of California, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) to lower energy costs by increasing American energy production, exports, infrastructure, and critical minerals processing, by promoting transparency, accountability, permitting, and production of American resources, and by improving water quality certification and energy projects, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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