Press Releases

Currently showing results related to Energy and Mineral Resources

01.24.18

Grijalva, Lowenthal and McEachin Demand Oversight Hearing to get Answers from Sec. Zinke on the Draft Five-Year Oil and Gas Leasing Plan

Washington, D.C. - In response to the Department of the Interior's (DOI) inability to provide concrete details about DOI's five-year oil and gas leasing plan, leading Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) today requesting a full oversight hearing on the planning process and insisted that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testify to provide answers about his efforts. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Ranking Member of the Subc… Continue Reading

01.22.18

Grijalva and Lowenthal Question BSEE’s Rewrite of Critical Offshore Oil and Gas Safety Rules

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, sent a letter late on Friday to Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke questioning Department proposals that would modify two offshore safety rules. The rules were developed by the Obama administration's Interior Department, based on recommendations from National Academy of Sciences and academia, and discussions with industr… Continue Reading

01.19.18

BREAKING: Key Administration Drilling Official Contradicts Zinke on Whether Florida Coastlines “Off the Table” for Offshore Drilling

Washington, D.C. - At a hearing of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee moments ago, Walter Cruickshank, acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), said Florida is not off the table for offshore drilling activities, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's tweeted statement a few days ago following a hasty meeting with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R). Cruickshank's statement calls into question the entire process behind Zinke's tweet and raises serious questions a… Continue Reading

01.16.18

Dems Question BLM Withdrawal of Fracking Rule – Agency Admits It Won’t Generate New Energy on Public Lands

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, sent a letter this morning to Joseph Balash, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management, questioning the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) decision to withdraw its fracking rule, which lays out environmental and operational safety standards for fracking operations on public lands. The agency admits th… Continue Reading

01.10.18

Committee Advances a Republican Oil and Gas Giveaway Bill, Despite Democratic Protests

Washington, D.C. - Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee advanced the Streamlining Environmental Approvals or SEA Act (H.R. 3133) to the House floor. The bill was passed by voice vote today, but Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) stated that he still strongly opposes the bill and will continue to fight to stop the bill from passing on the House floor. "My position on the SEA Act remains the same, it's a dangerous bill that was solely written to fulfill the oil and g… Continue Reading

01.10.18

Ranking Member Grijalva: This Administration’s Energy Policies Are Arbitrary, Political and Incompetent

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that the Trump administration's sudden decision not to open the Florida coastline to offshore oil drilling shows how deeply arbitrary and politicized the nation's energy policies have become under Republican control. Grijalva's comments come after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke declared with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) yesterday - after a brief meeting during which the two men never left the Tallahassee airport[i] - th… Continue Reading

01.10.18

Grijalva Asks Interior Inspector General to Examine Stopped National Academies Studies, Locate Missing Public Funds

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Interior Department Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall today requesting an investigation of the Trump administration's halting of two major studies at the National Academies of Sciences (NAS). The public rationales for the stop-work orders do not stand up to scrutiny and suggest political motives, Grijalva writes. In August 2017, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) halted work on… Continue Reading

01.10.18

The First Committee Markup of 2018 is Focused on a Republican Oil and Gas Giveaway Bill

Washington, D.C. - House Republicans are launching into the new year by focusing their first Committee markup of 2018 on a Republican bill that would make it easier for oil and gas companies to expedite industrial drilling projects in our oceans. The Streamlining Environmental Approvals or SEA Act (H.R. 3133) would gut core provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to expedite seismic airgun blasting and other activities in oceans that can harm marine mammals. "Republicans are takin… Continue Reading

01.04.18

Grijalva: New Offshore Oil Leasing Plan Means More Environmental Disasters, No Help for Americans at the Pump

Washington, D.C. - The Trump administration's newly-announced five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing along the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in combination with its efforts to weaken offshore drilling environmental and safety standards, will put every coastal community in America at risk of environmental disaster and do nothing to decrease the price of energy for everyday Americans, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today. The leasing plan opens all federal U.S… Continue Reading

12.20.17

Grijalva on the Passage of the GOP Tax Scam and Inadequate Disaster Relief Plan

Washington, D.C. - House Republicans voted for a second time today to shower early Christmas presents on the richest one percent and wealthy corporations, while raising taxes on millions of middle class families. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) - who served on the tax bill conference committee, but did not sign the final conference report - voted against the bill because it will have devastating consequences on American families while opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Re… Continue Reading

12.15.17

Grijalva: Sec. Perdue’s Answers to Questions Reaffirm My Support for Continuing Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Moratorium

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said a response from Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to his questions about the agency's recent recommendation to consider canceling a 20-year moratorium on new uranium mining claims near the Grand Canyon has only strengthened his support for keeping the moratorium in place. Perdue was responding to Grijalva's Nov. 3 letter, which noted that the USFS review "offers no analysis or justification for lifting the morator… Continue Reading

12.12.17

Grijalva: 9th Circuit Ruling Upholding Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Withdrawal is a Huge Win for Environment, Tribes

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today hailed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the Obama administration's 20-year withdrawal of more than 1 million acres of land around the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining claims. The ruling is an enormous blow to the National Mining Association (NMA), which filed a lawsuit in 2011 seeking to block the withdrawal, and other special interests who had called Obama's actions illegal. Today's 2:00 p.m. Energy … Continue Reading

12.11.17

Ranking Member Grijalva: Tuesday Hearing Will Highlight Need for Continued Protection for the Grand Canyon

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that he will use Tuesday's hearing on Republican and Trump administration demands for more mining of uranium and other minerals from public land to highlight the threat those plans pose to the Grand Canyon. Grijalva will highlight the need to maintain the existing Obama-era moratorium on new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres in the region. In late September, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) urged the U.S. For… Continue Reading

11.30.17

House Republicans Vote to Imperil a Minnesota Wilderness Area for Foreign Mining Company

Washington, D.C. - On a largely party line vote, the U.S. House advanced a Republican bill that would resurrect two expired leases in the Superior National Forest for a Chilean mining conglomerate seeking to build a copper sulfide mine near one of America's most visited wilderness areas. The bill (H.R. 3905) would overturn a 2016 U.S. Forest Service finding that building a copper sulfide mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Northern Minnesota could result in "extreme" a… Continue Reading

11.16.17

Grijalva, 16 Democrats Introduce Comprehensive Energy Reform Legislation to Increase Taxpayer Benefits, Promote Conservation

Washington, D.C. - As House Republicans continue to promote enormous oil and gas industry giveaways as their vision for energy policy, and as Senate Republicans move to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of an unrelated tax bill, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) laid out a smarter way forward by introducing the Sustainable Energy Development Reform Act (SEDRA) today with 16 House Democratic cosponsors. The bill protects the Arctic Refuge, allows ener… Continue Reading

11.08.17

Grijalva: Today’s Republican Oil and Gas Giveaway Same as the Last One – And They’re Not Even Trying to Justify It

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said ahead of today's 10:00 a.m. markup of H.R. 4239, the latest in a never-ending string of Republican oil and gas deregulation efforts, that the entire premise of the bill has already been debunked and Republicans are only proceeding because they have no other ideas. "This bill has all the signs of mental exhaustion," Grijalva said. "It's the same polluter industry wish list they've presented for years dressed up in yesterday… Continue Reading

10.24.17

Countering Administration Silence, Lowenthal-Grijalva Bill Mandates Disclosure on Industry Hoarding of Unused Permits to Drill

Washington, D.C. - In response to the recent announcement that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will no longer publish its longstanding annual report on the number of approved but unused oil and gas drilling permits on public land - a key indicator that contradicts industry claims of being unable to get permits in a timely manner - Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) introduced a bill today requiring the Interior Secretary to continue submitting unused permit data to Congress each year and to limi… Continue Reading

10.19.17

Gulf of Mexico: Ranking Member Grijalva Asks GAO to Investigate Trump Administration’s Latest Taxpayer Rip-off

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation of how much public revenue may have been lost due to changes in the way the Interior Department (DOI) leases parcels for oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico. The request comes shortly after DOI increased the size and frequency of its lease sales as part of the 2017-2022 oil and gas leasing program. GAO found in 1985 that DOI's move from a parcel nomination … Continue Reading

10.17.17

Ranking Member Grijalva Calls for Accounting of Unallocated Research Money, Explanation of Canceled Coal Study in Letter to Zinke

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to explain the fate of approximately $400,000 in funding for a recently canceled study on the public health impacts of mountaintop removal mining, a destructive coal extraction process known to harm residents of Appalachian states. Grijalva points out in today's letter, available at http://bit.ly/2gMuZ1C, that Trump administration officials have repeatedly refused to answer his and h… Continue Reading

Showing page of 6