Will Democrats in swing districts and states oppose a bill to expand production?
President Biden’s energy policy is summed up by last year’s $370 billion gift to the climate lobby, aka the Inflation Reduction Act. That leaves an opening for Congress, where House Republicans unveiled their energy agenda this month. The plan should have a shot if self-described moderate Democrats stand by their claims.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s Lower Energy Costs Act includes reforms to unburden energy producers and cut costs for consumers. It would repeal the Energy Department’s power to block cross-border purchases and sales of natural gas, letting producers import and export without months of preapproval.
The move is inspired by Congress’s elimination of the oil-export ban in 2015, which helped U.S. producers become the global leader as domestic drilling surged. Progressives urged President Biden to ban natural-gas exports last year before an expected price spike in the winter, but trade amid global shortages boosts investment and increases supply.
The bill also promotes the production of minerals that are critical to manufacturing, especially for electric vehicles. It allows the Energy Department to grant easements lasting up to 50 years for mineral extraction, and it reduces the federal fee on sales.
The bill’s most important plank reforms permitting, which stymies projects of all kinds—renewable energy and fossil fuels—and has become a national embarrassment. The bill mandates a one-year time limit to determine whether a project will have a significant environmental impact, and a two-year maximum for extensive reports on certain projects’ effects. It also streamlines the process for lawsuits that activists use to kill projects by delaying them for years. The bill requires opponents to opine during the public comment period before suing, limits their suit to the topic of their comment, and gives them 120 days to file.
House Republicans also plan to block wasteful and counterproductive programs in the Inflation Reduction Act. Their bill would repeal the fee that the last Congress imposed on methane emissions, which takes effect next year at $900 per metric ton and rises to $1,500 in 2026. The fee will be an obstacle to production for smaller companies. The new bill would also cancel the $27 billion “green bank,” which is gearing up to fund local climate-friendly investments with federal dollars. It is pure green pork.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the House bill as “dead on arrival” in the Senate. Yet cheaper energy is popular and is a broad cause on Capitol Hill. Such vulnerable Senators as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona may feel pressure to give the plan a fair hearing. Republicans John Barrasso and Shelley Moore Capito will lead the push in the Senate and could explore the possibility of a compromise.
Stranger political things have happened. If House Republicans pass the bill and pick up the votes of some House Democrats, who knows how the politics might evolve if energy prices spike as an election approaches. Republicans campaigned on promoting more U.S. energy production and distribution, and the Scalise bill honors that promise.
