House PASSES marquee energy package HR 1

House Republicans approved a sprawling energy package that would bring more oil, gas and critical minerals to market by reducing regulation and shortening the permitting process.

The final vote was 225-204—four Democrats joined all but one Republican, and six members did not vote. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voted against the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) has declared HR 1 in its current form “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber and President Joe Biden has vetoed it. Still, Republicans insist there is a Democratic appetite for some of the provisions.

House Republicans speaking to DailyMail.com predicted their Democratic colleagues could get behind allowing reforms and legislation to boost mining, as Schumer privately tells senators he expects to move forward at some point this year. allowing reforms.

The Lower Energy Cost Act, to which Republicans have given symbolic importance in labeling HR 1, would speed up the federal licensing process for oil and gas pipelines and the extraction and production of critical minerals.

It also includes provisions to force the Biden administration to ramp up sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and to remove all restrictions on natural gas imports and exports.

It would expand oil and gas drilling by restricting the Clean Water Act, which Democratic-led states have used to block such projects, and by cutting methane emissions allowances in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

It would cut some of the subsidies for energy-efficient appliances, but does not affect the IRA’s subsidies for electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies.

It would also end the federal moratorium on coal leasing and limit the president’s authority to restrict cross-border energy projects like the Keystone XL pipeline that Biden banned upon taking office.

The bill would limit environmental assessments under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to two years. A ruling by Pete Stauber, R-Minn., chair of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, shortens permit timelines for hard rock mining and limits judicial intervention to 120 days.

“We can’t rely on our opponents to mine our critical minerals — if the CCP stopped selling the critical minerals that are active in our pharmaceutical ingredients, the experts would say it would be a disaster,” Stauber said. DailyMail.com.

And while Schumer calls the bill a “big oil wish list,” Republicans say it’s an “all-of-the-above” energy approach that would also help clean energy projects.

“Our bill would actually help them build windmills and solar panels and transmission lines that they can’t build right now,” Representative Bruce Westerman, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, told DailyMail.com.

‘Minister of Internal Affairs [Deb Haaland] she said at a hearing yesterday that we depend on China to build electric vehicles,” he said, referring to Tuesday’s House Appropriations to belong.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Democratic opponents used “old, tired talking points that don’t fit the bill” and predicted they would pass some of the provisions.

“So once it gets past the House floor, I think there will be a meeting on the other side of the building to discuss what you really want,” he told DailyMail.com.

“Of course Senator Schumer is going to say no, right? It’s a Republican idea. Yes. He’s lived in this town for 47 years,” Stauber said. “I have had private conversations behind the scenes with my Democratic colleagues about the bill. I know they like it, and some of the provisions they like a lot.”

“My colleagues on the left need to understand that if they want renewable energy development, our current system will not support it,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R.S.D.

The bill also includes language from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who would prevent “foreign bad actors” who have committed human rights violations from operating on federal lands. It contains an amendment from Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, which prohibits China from buying U.S. farmland for ethanol and biodiesel production.