05.23.19

Grijalva, Leading Democrats Question Political Motivations, Lack of Science and Public Input on “Energy Dominance” Strategy in Series of New Letters

Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent three letters to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt seeking information on the development of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) offshore oil and gas leasing program, DOI’s intention to reopen the federal coal leasing program without first producing an environmental impact statement, and on the curious inclusion of uranium on DOI’s “critical minerals” list, which is not supported by the National Academy of Sciences or other expert bodies.

Each letter is joined by other leading Democratic lawmakers.

Offshore Drilling

Grijalva sent a letter to Bernhardt today with Rep. Alan S. Lowenthal (D-Calif.), chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources; Chair Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), head of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis; and Chair Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), head of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, requesting a copy of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Program as it existed in draft form on March 29, 2019.

The letter, available at http://bit.ly/2wh301I, also requests relevant documents and communications between DOI and the Florida governor’s office, the White House, and the Republican National Committee related to the contents of the Proposed Program and the timing of its public release.

In an April 25, 2019, Wall Street Journal interview, Bernhardt indicated that he had directed the BOEM to halt development of the 2019-2024 National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Program, which has been in development for more than a year. Bernhardt’s stated reason was a March 29, 2019, federal court decision reinstating environmental protections in parts of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.

However, as the lawmakers write today, that court decision does not create a legal impediment to releasing and finalizing the Proposed Program, as Bernhardt himself acknowledged at a May 15 Natural Resources Committee hearing. Indeed, they write, DOI seems to have put the release of the Proposed Program and the finalization of the leasing plan on hold not for legal reasons but because the inclusion of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic planning areas would pose an immense political risk to President Trump’s 2020 reelection chances.

Coal Leasing

Grijalva and Lowenthal sent a separate letter to Bernhardt today urging him to direct the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw its recently issued environmental assessment (EA) of the impacts of reopening the federal coal leasing program. The authors call on BLM to issue an environmental impact statement (EIS), a more sophisticated review with greater detail and analytical rigor, that includes ending the issuance of new leases altogether as an option (which the current EA does not).

The EIS preparation process, they write, should include Native American tribal consultation and a 90-day public comment rather than the “box-checking exercise that BLM is currently performing.”

The full letter is available at http://bit.ly/30GbcGL.

“The federal coal leasing program is responsible for over 13 percent of the country’s entire emissions of greenhouse gas pollution, which to our knowledge makes it the federal program with the single most harmful impact on our climate,” the authors write. “It is scientifically, logically, and legally indefensible to conclude that restarting the BLM coal leasing program would not have a significant effect on the human environment, and therefore an EIS is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

In January 2016, the Obama administration paused new coal leases to fully review the environmental and economic consequences of the federal coal program and identify potential reforms. Shortly after taking office, then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke unilaterally cancelled that review and resumed leasing federal coal.

On April 19, a federal court ruled that Zinke’s move was illegal because the leasing program was restarted without environmental review. Yesterday, little more than a month after the ruling, BLM issued a hastily written EA asserting that the resumption of the coal program will have no environmental impact.

Uranium Mining

Grijalva and Lowenthal also sent a letter to Bernhardt today asking him for documents, inter-agency communications, and other information needed to clarify the process by which DOI determined uranium to be a “critical mineral” pursuant to Executive Order 13817, which directed DOI to assess which “non-fuel minerals” are essential to economic and national security and could therefore be eligible for looser permitting standards. Uranium is not considered to be a critical mineral by the Department of Energy, National Academy of Sciences, or other organizations that have developed similar lists.

DOI released its final critical minerals list on May 18, 2018. Chair Grijalva sent letters to then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on March 19 and May 21, 2018, requesting more information about the inclusion of uranium. DOI’s only response to date provided little useful information.

The letter, available at http://bit.ly/2JZi0t0, requests information on the administration’s process for generating the critical minerals list. While the critical minerals list was supposedly developed through a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “screening tool,” DOI used vague, subjective factors – such as “various inputs from the [Department of Defense]” and “the judgment of subject-matter experts,” to finalize the list. As the lawmakers point out in the letter, DOI provided no actual information on why uranium is included.

Press Contact

Media Contacts: Adam Sarvana (Grijalva)

(202) 225-6065 or (202) 578-6626 mobile

Keith Higginbotham (Lowenthal)

(202) 225-7924 or keith.higginbotham@mail.house.gov

 

Mary Werden