Interior Secretary Deb Haaland received promises of bipartisan collaboration as she presented her department's initial fiscal year 2022 budget request before a House Appropriations panel, despite ongoing Republican concerns about Interior's direction on oil and gas leasing.
Adding a new emphasis on climate-related funding, President Joe Biden has proposed $17.4 billion in spending for Interior, a 16% increase over 2021 enacted levels. That included an added $550 million to decrease climate pollution, accelerate clean energy deployment, and expand efforts toward climate adaptation and ecosystem resilience among the departments land management agencies, Haaland said. The proposal also would add more than $450 million to remediate orphaned oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned mines.
Presenting the proposal, Haaland, a former House member and the first Native American Interior secretary, generally received a warm welcome from her former colleagues, who expressed a shared interest in upholding the federal government's responsibilities to Native American tribes.
Still, the panel's ranking member, David Joyce, Republican-Ohio, said he was "deeply concerned" that the president's pause on new oil and natural gas leases "may be the first step of a larger strategy to price domestic fossil energy out of the market and force Americans to pay for less reliable, less secure and less clean sources of energy."
Request for transparency
Joyce sought an update on the administration's comprehensive oil and gas leasing review and asked whether Interior would pursue it in a transparent way "so we can have buy-in from everyone and get input."
Haaland responded that "energy independence is absolutely important" and a priority of the administration, emphasizing the current pause affects only new leases.
"Our department is signing off on permits regularly, so I want you to know that industry continues to roll," she said. Interior continues to take input from diverse stakeholders, she added, referencing an oil and gas forum DOI held in March as well as outreach to states and communities across the country.
"Just know that we know and believe that the fossil fuel industry will continue for years to come," she said.
According to S&P Global Platts Analytics, there were about 450 permits issued under the moratorium between Jan. 20 and March 20, largely in line with 2020 levels, prior to the election.
Democrats at the hearing cheered the administration's budget proposal.
Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat-Maine, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's panel on interior, environment and related agencies, said the blueprint, preceding a more detailed budget plan, was a "refreshing change" from draconian budget cuts over the last four years. It "makes clear that President Biden is committed to making long overdue investments to preserve our planet and fight the climate crisis," as well as signaling a "return of science as the foundation for decision making," she said.
Secretarial orders
The administration's turn toward focusing on climate mitigation was also evident in two secretarial orders Haaland issued April 16. One revoked a series of Trump administration Interior Department orders intended to enable fossil energy development and streamline National Environmental Policy Act reviews. Another created a climate task force intended to coordinate work across the department and accelerate renewable energy development and foster revitalization of, and an investment in, "energy communities."
Of note, the orders support use of the NEPA process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bolster resilience to climate change and prioritize environmental justice. DOI offices were directed not to apply Trump's 2020 NEPA streamlining rule if doing so would change the application or level of NEPA.
In that context, DOI supported the consideration of the climate impacts of major agency actions, using tools such as the social cost of GHGs to quantify impacts, or else relying on a qualitative analysis. The wording suggested DOI include GHGs consideration for energy projects, as well as regulations, according to one industry attorney.
In addition, the climate task force order prioritized renewable energy projects for permitting and environmental review, including related transmission rights of way on DOI-managed lands and the Outer Continental Shelf.
Mining on public lands
The hearing also touched on access to public lands for mining important for the energy transition. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican-Idaho, raised concern that restrictions have made it difficult to mine in the US for rare earth and critical minerals needed to move toward solar, wind and battery new technologies.
"That's an issue that I want to work with you on to make sure we can improve our mining laws and our permitting access," he said.
Haaland said the department and president also recognize the importance of critical minerals.
"Yes, we have to have development, and as you said it needs to be environmentally responsible," she said, and "we need to have an eye toward protecting workers, and all of those issues that we know we're good at."
