Democrats push to overhaul mining law, citing clean energy

But it's unclear whether the mining reform legislation will attract support from moderate Democrats or Republicans, and the mining industry is voicing serious concerns about the measure.

The debate comes as climate advocates confront an uncomfortable truth: Meeting Biden's ambitious goals for electric vehicle adoption will require a big increase in mineral production at home and abroad.

The details: House Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) introduced the Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act on April 26. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) has introduced similar legislation in the Senate.

The measure would modernize and reform the Mining Law of 1872, which has remained virtually unchanged since its enactment more than a century ago.

• The legislation would require mining companies to pay royalties for new and existing operations on federal lands. Currently, mining companies pay no royalties to the federal government, unlike oil and gas companies that pay fees to drill on public lands.
• The bill would also set stronger environmental standards under the mining law, and it would require the government to consult with Indigenous tribes before permitting mines near tribal communities.

“The transition to a clean energy future will inevitably involve mining — no question,” Grijalva said at a Capitol Hill news conference on Tuesday, which marked the 150th anniversary of President Ulysses S. Grant signing the 1872 mining law. 

“But that doesn't mean that we should risk permanent damage to our sacred places, our wildernesses and our health,” he said.

An uncertain path forward

The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a hearing Thursday to consider the legislation. But the bill faces an uncertain path forward in the full House and Senate, with little support from moderate Democrats or Republicans so far.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who faces reelection this fall, last year killed language in Biden's climate and social spending bill that would have established a royalty for hard rock mining on federal lands.

Lauren Wodarski, a spokeswoman for Cortez Masto, said in an email to The Climate 202 yesterday: “Senator Cortez Masto will continue to oppose legislation that negatively impacts Nevada’s mining industry and the over 30,000 jobs it supports.”

Grijalva told reporters after Tuesday's news conference, however, that he thinks the legislation doesn't present any “political risks” for its backers.

“In Arizona, when you say there should be a permanent mining [ban] around the Grand Canyon, both sides of the aisle and independents overwhelmingly support that,” he said.

Industry opposition

The National Mining Association, a trade group that represents large mining companies, has expressed strong reservations about the bill.

“It's the wrong legislation at the wrong time,” Katie Sweeney, the association's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a phone interview with The Climate 202.

The measure “is going to drive mineral development off of our shores [and] increase our reliance on Chinese metals,” Sweeney added, noting that the United States is already reliant on China and other countries for many minerals used in electric car batteries, including graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Still, Sweeney praised Biden's recent decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to spur more domestic mineral production, calling it a “very helpful” move.

White House weighs in

The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled an action plan for improving the permitting process for large infrastructure projects. (More on that below.)

On a call with reporters yesterday previewing the announcement, a White House official said the National Economic Council and several agencies would work together to ensure that mining for critical minerals is done in an “environmentally sensitive” way.

“We appreciate that the laws that are on the books are quite outdated — in some cases decades, if not centuries, old,” said Samantha Silverberg, the White House's deputy infrastructure implementation coordinator. “And having a sustainable supply of those minerals is critical to electric vehicles as well as a variety of other renewable goals.”

A White House fact sheet added that the administration will “work to reform outdated permitting laws and regulations, such as the Mining Law of 1872, to establish stronger environmental, sustainability, safety, Tribal consultation, and community engagement standards.”

Agency alert

Biden administration seeks to jump-start infrastructure projects

The Biden administration on Wednesday released a five-part action plan to “strengthen and accelerate” the permitting process for large infrastructure projects, including clean energy generation and transmission projects, following last year's passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law.

The plan calls for federal agencies to coordinate early in the permitting process, establish clear timelines for major projects and engage in “meaningful outreach with states, tribal nations, territories and local communities,” according to the White House fact sheet.

Brenda Mallory, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, told reporters on Tuesday's call that the plan would help expedite “well-designed projects that support the president's ambitious climate and clean energy goals” without cutting corners on environmental reviews.

Alex Herrgott, president of the nonprofit Permitting Institute and former executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, said in a statement to The Climate 202 that the plan will “simplify an overly complicated permitting process that has for too long existed in a black box.”

Energy Department launches $2.5 billion fund to update power grid

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a request for information seeking public input on a $2.5 billion program to build new and upgraded transmission lines across the country.

The investments, which come from the bipartisan infrastructure law and are part of the agency’s new Building a Better Grid Initiative, are aimed at helping the nation achieve President Biden's goal of running the national grid on 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.

On the Hill

Rep. Westerman works on legislation to protect giant sequoias

Rep. Bruce Westerman (Ark.), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee and the only licensed forester in Congress, is working to craft legislation to save California's giant sequoia trees — the iconic natural carbon sinks that he says are being scorched by wildfires after more than a century of forest mismanagement and a warming, drying climate. 

As early as this month, Westerman, along with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), is planning to introduce the Save our Sequoias Act to help the Forest Service pursue management projects, such as prescribed burning and forest thinning, to reduce wildfire risk. 

“Forestry is the area where we ought to be able to all come together to practice sound forest management to take care of these forests, and then we can have the most immediate impact on the climate,” Westerman said in an interview with The Climate 202 on Tuesday. 

Asked about curbing fossil fuel use, a primary driver of climate change, Westerman said that “trees are larger scale. They’re more pragmatic and more economical. They’re the number one way we can remove carbon from the atmosphere.” 

But, he added, "if we can come up with cleaner energy sources, we should always be working on that as well.” Beyond the expansion of renewables, Westerman said “we’ve got to figure out how to make the fossil fuels that we use cleaner.”

Pressure points

Earth has an even chance of soon hitting 1.5 degrees of warming

The World Meteorological Organization said Monday that there is a 50 percent chance the annual global temperature will warm to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — a crucial warming limit outlined in the Paris climate agreement, The Post's Kasha Patel reports. In 2015, the probability of reaching that target was zero, underscoring the rapid pace of human-caused climate change.

“A single year of exceedance above 1.5°C does not mean we have breached the iconic threshold of the Paris agreement, but it does reveal that we are edging ever closer to a situation where 1.5°C could be exceeded for an extended period,” Leon Hermanson, a researcher at Britain’s Met Office who led the report, said in a news release.

Scientists have long warned about the dangers of hitting that threshold, saying that when surpassed over a long period, more intense, record-shattering weather events will occur.

Environmental justice

Communities of color are last in line for disaster planning in Texas

Kashmere Gardens, a Houston neighborhood that was devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floods during most storms because rainfall overflows aging drainage systems, trapping families inside their homes.

Despite the consistent damage, Texas allocated none of the $1 billion in federal funds it received to protect communities from future disasters to Houston neighborhoods that flood regularly, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, The Post's Tracy Jan reports. 

The agency concluded that the state “shifted money away from the areas and people that needed it the most,” while discriminating against majority Black and Hispanic urban communities and ensuring White residents living in smaller towns benefit. The state rejected the agency's conclusions, saying it followed criteria approved by HUD. 

The case in Texas exemplifies the challenge facing the Biden administration as it focuses on racial equity and seeks to protect low-income communities of color from the effects of climate change.

In the atmosphere

• Summerlike heat bakes central states, breaks records — Matthew Capucci for The Post
• Oil giants sell dirty wells to buyers with looser climate goals, study finds — Hiroko Tabuchi for the New York Times
• ConocoPhillips investors reject plan for stricter climate goals — Paul Takahashi for Bloomberg News
• LA moving to third phase of emergency water conservation plan — Olafimihan Oshin for the Hill

Viral

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