Natural Resources Committee Research Articles

Senator Joe Manchin's Useful, but Stalled, Interstate Energy Permitting Reform

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin spent much of 2022 pursuing an energy siting and permitting reform bill—“Building America's Energy Security Act of 2022”—that aimed to accelerate permitting of all types of American energy infrastructure to promote energy security and climate objectives, without bypassing environmental laws or state and local input. At the same time, 2022 saw actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), in the form of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPRs), that muddied permitting for both useful natural gas pipelines and electricity transmission projects in different ways, as I previously wrote about in this column in July and September, 2022. Manchin was not successful in inserting his permitting reform bill into President Biden's $1.7 trillion federal spending bill signed on December 29, 2022. But as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he expressed his displeasure with FERC—effectively sacking then FERC Chair Richard Glick by failing to hold a hearing on his nomination by President Biden for a second term.

Commentary: Fresh, Clean Water for Texans Now and for Generations to Come

Editor-in-Chief's Note: The Texas Water Journal invited Texas state Representative Tracy O. King, incoming chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, to share his thoughts on what is ahead for the Natural Resources Committee. The opinion expressed in this commentary is the opinion of the individual author and not the opinion of the Texas Water Journal or the Texas Water Resources Institute. Received 26 February 2021, Accepted 3 March 2021, Published online 4 March 2021 Citation: King TO. 2021. Commentary: Fresh, Clean Water for Texans Now and for Generations to Come. Texas Water Journal. 12(1):40-41. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v12i1.7135.

Energy secretary hearing focused on jobs

The US is on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the need to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions to cut the impact of climate change, according to President Joe Biden’s nominee for energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm . But rather than cost jobs, the transformation will net millions of new ones in a growing clean energy sector, Granholm said when testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Jan. 27. Granholm, a former Michigan governor, led an effort to revitalize a failing economy in her state. She is credited with creating roughly 1 million jobs, primarily based on hiring for clean energy products, such as vehicles and batteries. The Biden-Harris administration hopes to repeat that success on a national level. Granholm and the Department of Energy will be key members of a team expected to bring this about. The energy transformation will depend heavily on clean technologies, some

First Post-Legislative Scrutiny in Georgia: Steps Towards Generating Result-oriented Laws

The effective implementation of law is a complex process. This process depends on the availability of human resources, public engagement, funding (at least, on the stage of piloting), among others. Often, the focus is on getting legislation adopted, rather than on practical implementation and its impact. To fill in this gap, oversight over the Implementation of Normative Acts (i.e., Post-legislative scrutiny, hereinafter “PLS”) has been introduced in the Rules of Procedures of the Parliament of Georgia (hereinafter, the “Parliament”). This article scrutinises the procedures that are shaping the Parliament’s ability to conduct PLS as well as its interaction with the executive. The working theory for this paper is that insufficient attention has been paid to the review of legislation after its enactment in Georgia. The paper addresses the work that has been undertaken at the national level, particularly through monitoring the effects of adopted legislation in ensuring benefits for constituents in the ways initially intended. Furthermore, it will reflect on the challenges identified in the ongoing PLS process by the Environments Protection and Natural Resources Committee (hereinafter “Environment Committee”) and the lessons learned based on the experience. The article uses a case study of Georgia to explore the context and challenges for effective PLS. For comparision, this research adopted the UK approach, where it is common to review the laws three to five years after enactment.

Trump taps Dan Brouillette to lead the DOE

President Donald J. Trump on Nov. 7 formally nominated Dan Brouillette as US secretary of energy. Brouillette, currently deputy secretary of energy, would replace Rick Perry. Brouillette is a strong proponent of US oil and natural gas development and is expected to continue the Trump administration’s push for fossil fuel production and use. Before becoming the Department of Energy’s second in command, Brouillette was an executive at the United Services Automobile Association, a financial institution, and at Ford. He has also held positions in government. He was chief of staff to the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce from 2003 to 2004 and was assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs from 2001 to 2003. In addition, he is a former Louisiana state energy regulator. The next stop for Brouillette will be hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Although he received Senate

US Congress displays new interest in climate change

After years of showing little interest in climate change other than to challenge science, the US Congress has launched a series of hearings on the issue. The House of Representatives, which Democrats have controlled since January, examined federal inaction on the global 2015 Paris Agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, federal research on climate, and the effects of climate change on oceans in hearings the week of Feb. 25. Holding those hearings were panels with jurisdiction over environment, federal funding, and science matters. Earlier in February, other House hearings probed the state of climate change science, the need to act on climate change, and the environmental and economic impacts of climate change. The House is not alone in demonstrating renewed interest in climate change. On March 5, the Republican-controlled Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will focus on “the electricity sector in a changing climate.” Notably, the House on Feb.

Fertility from Urban Wastes? The Case for Composting in Great Britain, 1920s-1960s

Abstract This paper analyses the interest that developed in Great Britain around composting from the late 1920s. It argues that before the current vogue for composting, the technique attracted considerable attention in the middle of the twentieth century and that interest in this technology was not limited to a few 'mystical' members of the organic movement. This paper also analyses the role of an institution called the Natural Resources (Technical) Committee and attempts to show that opposition in Whitehall played a key role in the marginalisation of this technology. It thus suggests that the rise of the 'hegemony of disposal' in the twentieth century did not go uncontested and that it was not a purely technical and inexorable movement. The example of composting thus shows that the birth of a 'throwaway society' was not as consensual as usually described and rather than the result of a widespread aversion to refuse, it should be seen as the result of political decisions, themselves informed by a specific type of quantitative and reductionist type of expertise.

Testimony on the Department of the Interior's New Policy on Off-Reservation Acquisitions of Land in Trust for Indian Gaming, before the United States House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, 110th Congress, Second Session (February 27, 2008)

The Department of the Interior's New Guidance on Off-Reservation Acquisitions of Land in Trust for Indian Gaming assumes that the principal value of Indian gaming is reservation employment. Although this assumption is mostly incorrect - Indian gaming operations, like state lotteries, are about public revenues, not jobs - off-reservation gaming can dramatically increase the number of public service jobs on Indian reservations. Indian gaming revenues are mostly expended on tribal services to tribal members, creating numerous public service jobs in tribal government. Off-reservation Indian gaming can also provide revenues for restoration of lands on Indian reservation, making up for limited public appropriations for land restoration. In many ways, off-reservation gaming is better for tribes than on-reservation gaming because it provides revenues but does not interfere with tribal culture and tribal communities. Interior's new policy is off base for these and other reasons explained more fully herein.

Invited Written Testimony of Professor Kirsten Matoy Carlson, on H.R. 3744, a Bill to Provide That an Indian Group May Receive Federal Acknowledgment as an Indian Tribe Only by Act of Congress, before the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs, Natural Resources Committee, United States House of Representatives, 115th Congress, September 26, 2017

H.R. 3744 intends to clarify the roles of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the federal acknowledgment of Indian entities. In evaluating the proposal in H.R. 3744, members of this Committee should be fully informed about the historical role that Congress has played in the federal recognition process and the experiences of Indian groups seeking congressional recognition. This testimony summarizes the findings from two empirical studies that I conducted on the legislative and administrative recognition of Indian groups from 1975 to 2013. These studies reveal that while H.R. 3744’s goals of consistency and clarity are laudable, the bill rests on questionable assumptions about federal recognition and Congress’s role in it over time. I conclude with some observations about H.R. 3744 and its ability to increase transparency and efficiency in the federal recognition process.

Key Texas Senate and House water committee chairmen discuss water issues of the 85th Legislature

Editor-in-Chief’s note: In every odd-numbered year, the Texas Legislature convenes in regular session for 140 days. With this in mind, the Texas Water Journal invited Senator Charles Perry, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Water & Rural Affairs Committee, and Representative Lyle Larson, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, to discuss their priorities and visions for Texas water and the regular session of the 85th Texas Legislature. The opinions expressed in these commentaries are the opinions of the individuals and not the opinions of the Texas Water Journal or the Texas Water Resources Institute. Citation: Perry C, Larson L. 2017. Key Texas Senate and House water committee chairmen discuss water issues of the 85th Legislature. Texas Water Journal. 8(1):13-17. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v8i1.7057.

Fraccing forum

There have been 13 major inquiries completed during the past few years that have addressed the issue of hydraulic fracture stimulation (fraccing) in Australia. There are two inquiries due to report before mid-2016; namely in SA (Natural Resources Committee, Parliament of South Australia, 2015), and the Senate Inquiry (Parliament of Australia, 2015). These inquiries are in addition to many others conducted in overseas jurisdictions including various states of the US, Canada, and in countries in the European Union, including the UK. Concerns are usually concluded around ensuring there is a proper regulatory environment to confirm that the use of fraccing is conducted using international best practices, and the risk to the environment is minimised. In each and every responsible inquiry the conclusion has been that there is no scientific or public policy reason that would justifiably prevent the use of fraccing as a pre-well completion stimulation technique. This paper attempts to synthesise basic data about fraccing—why the ability to fracture stimulate wells is no longer a luxury but a necessity in deep oil and gas production—to convey factual information and summarise the results of inquiries in Australia to date. Comparisons between hydraulic fracture stimulation operations and results in the US and Australia are intended to provide comfort that some of the potentially more intense (massive) hydraulic fracture stimulation operations routinely conducted in the US (and Canada) on an individual well basis are not contemplated in the immediate future in Australia. The scale of North American fraccing activities may bear little resemblance to what may be proposed or occur in Australia owing to fundamental differences in geology, basin stress regimes, infrastructure, and cost and logistics, among other factors. The author’s conclusion is that fraccing in Australia can and will be carried out in a sphere of safety and regulation that many other countries are likely to aspire to copy. It would, however, be foolish to suggest hydraulic fracturing operations are not without some risk, as with many industrial and other daily activities, but the risks can be managed or mitigated with sound engineering and scientific practices. This is irrespective of the messages by opponents of hydraulic fracture stimulation in oil and gas wells. The modern practice of fraccing has been used now for more than 65 years, albeit with increasing scale commensurate with technological advances, which has caught the public’s imagination. Indeed, the results of inquiries have given no credence to demonising the technology.

CAPTURING CARBON DIOXIDE

RESEARCHERS AND lawmakers alike are looking for ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere because of its contribution to global climate change. Work to develop feasible carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies is still ongoing, and methods to turn the CO 2 into a resource for other industrial applications, such as enhanced oil recovery, are years away from becoming reality. This was the less than satisfying message delivered to senators during a hearing earlier this month. The goal of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing was to get feedback on a pair of CCS bills that have been reintroduced in the Senate. In discussing the legislation, the witnesses described potential uses for captured CO 2 but noted that such options either are not cost-effective or are technically challenging. Of the two bills, discussion of S. 699—an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that would allow the ...

ARPA-E CONFAB DRAWS UNUSUAL SUPPORTERS

DESPITE MOVES by many Republican members of Congress to cut Department of Energy funds, two key party leaders voiced strong support this month for at least one basic clean energy research program: the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood movie star and former California governor, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee and a longtime advocate of oil and gas drilling and production, were speaking at DOE’s Energy Innovation Summit. Held this month in Washington, D.C., the summit attracted more than 2,000 clean energy technologists and investors to discuss and display technologies under development through ARPA-E support. According to Schwarzenegger, ARPA-E research and technologies are needed to transform the world of energy. The U.S., he said, must move beyond debates about global warming and instead promote clean energy development for jobs, health, energy security, and economics. Clean ...

SSA Government Relations Committee Chairman Stu Nishenko Testifies before Congress on NEHRP Reauthorization

Research Article| March 01, 2010 SSA Government Relations Committee Chairman Stu Nishenko Testifies before Congress on NEHRP Reauthorization Stu Nishenko; Stu Nishenko Chairman Government Relations Committee spn3@pge.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Elizabeth Duffy Elizabeth Duffy Government Affairs Director Federal Affairs Office eduffy@federalaffairs.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Stu Nishenko Chairman Government Relations Committee spn3@pge.com Elizabeth Duffy Government Affairs Director Federal Affairs Office eduffy@federalaffairs.com Publisher: Seismological Society of America First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Online Issn: 1938-2057 Print Issn: 0895-0695 © 2010 by the Seismological Society of America Seismological Research Letters (2010) 81 (2): 182. https://doi.org/10.1785/gssrl.81.2.182 Article history First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Stu Nishenko, Elizabeth Duffy; SSA Government Relations Committee Chairman Stu Nishenko Testifies before Congress on NEHRP Reauthorization. Seismological Research Letters 2010;; 81 (2): 182. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/gssrl.81.2.182 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietySeismological Research Letters Search Advanced Search On 20 January 2010 the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the Natural Hazards Risk Reduction Act, which contains the reauthorization of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). As a featured witness, SSA Government Relations Committee Chairman Stu Nishenko provided invited testimony before Chairman Jim Costa (D-California, District 20), Ranking Member Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado, District 5), and the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Nishenko testified and answered questions about NEHRP's successes over the past authorization period, addressed changes to the USGS authorization amounts in the current bill, and discussed how reductions to funding... You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Political Pressure's Effect on Repository Sites—Response

Winograd believes that it is the NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) syndrome that has fueled political and public opposition to the siting of nuclear facilities, particularly the nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Our point, as explained in our Policy Forum, is that one must expect sustained political and public opposition such as NIMBY in the absence of a transparent process, strong public participation, careful attention and discussion of technical issues, a clear regulatory framework, and an appropriate management structure (not DOE). This past June, Sweden announced the location of its geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel, the result of a nearly two-decade open process with the extensive involvement of the local communities. Winograd cites the 2008 statement by the directors of national laboratories, including Steven Chu, then the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as an endorsement of Yucca Mountain. We note that it is the same Steven Chu, now the Secretary of Energy, who has removed Yucca Mountain from consideration as a nuclear waste repository, noting in testimony to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (5 March 2009) that “I think we can do a better job….” One interpretation of this change in position is that political considerations have again overwhelmed the process. As long as this remains the case in the United States, a prudent public may be wise in saying “not in my backyard.”

PUTTING A PRICE ON CUTTING CO

UNCERTAINTY underscored expert testimony last week at a Senate hearing that examined the long-term cost to U.S. industries, workers, and households of legislation that would cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Although the four government economists who testified at the hearing warned of the difficulty in making accurate long-range estimates, they agreed that the overall economic impact is likely to be minor when compared with the size of the nation’s economy. That impact, however, would hit some households and industrial sectors hard, they said, much to the chagrin of senators who represent fossil-fuel-dependent regions. The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing was one of several taking place as a half-dozen committees try to fashion a Senate climate-change bill (see page 30). Addressing climate change will require “a radical transformation of our energy sector,” committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) cautioned. Interest groups have been circling Capitol Hill with various analyses, Binga...

CONGRESS QUESTIONS CHU, JACKSON

EVEN BEFORE Barack Obama has been sworn in as the 44th U.S. President, his nominees to head the Department of Energy and EPA have come before separate Senate committees in the first step toward their confirmation. Last week’s hearings offered senators an opportunity to ask questions of the nominees and get a head start on approving them, noted Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Steven Chu, a Nobel Laureate who leads DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, appeared to glide through a Jan. 13 hearing before Bingaman’s committee. The discussion ranged from the parochial to the global. While Chu talked about the transformation of energy production, questions from the 20 senators attending often reflected the transformation’s likely impact on jobs and the cost of energy in their states. Stopping climate change and promoting energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide are clearly Chu’s top priorities. Climate change, he said, ...

JON M. HUNTSMAN JR.

GIVEN HIS NAME, it would seem logical that Jon M. Huntsman Jr. would be focused on a career in the chemical business. Although his billionaire businessman father founded Huntsman Corp., one of the largest U.S. chemical producers, the younger Huntsman says he has never aspired to run the firm. Instead, Huntsman, who has been governor of Utah since 2004 and is seeking reelection next month, continues to carve out an upwardly mobile career in politics. C&EN caught up with Huntsman last month, after he was chosen to give a Sept. 4 speech officially nominating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s running mate at the Republican National Convention. Huntsman knows Palin through their affiliations with the National Governors Association, where they served together on the Natural Resources Committee, and the Western Governors’ Association, which he chairs. Huntsman, 48, says he became interested in a career in politics long before his family formed ...

Of Two Minds: Groups Square Off on Carbon Mitigation

The highly urbanized area around Los Angeles is dotted with oil fields and refineries. Oil wells perch in yards, parking lots, even schools. The Wilmington oil field, which stretches beneath much of the land between Los Angeles and its port, as well as for miles off the coast, supplies numerous local refineries that in recent years have shut down repeatedly during power outages. Restarting the facilities often causes clouds of odorous and potentially hazardous gas to be released. After a 3 October 2007 shutdown, for example, a ConocoPhillips refinery released a cloud of “yellow, metallic dust” containing what company representatives called “a mixture of iron, copper, nickel, aluminum, carbon, and other elements,” according to the local DailyBreeze.com news service.

Directions in National Water Research Policy and Funding

Water policy and water research have been relatively low profile over the last several years as larger issues have grabbed the headlines. Occasionally, as drought becomes particularly pervasive a bit of news trickles out in the national media (Johnson and Murphy 2004). Nevertheless, far-reaching legislative and executive activities are underway. The question remains, what impact will these Federal actions have in resolving our long-term water supply needs?