Reconciliation Update: Natural Resources Title

Early this morning, the House Natural Resources Committee approved its portion of Republicans’ reconciliation package after a marathon markup. The bill, largely aimed at ramping up energy and minerals production on federal lands, faced strong opposition from Democrats on the committee. Reporting the bill out of committee is a major win for GOP leadership, who were forced to punt three other contentious markups to next week.

Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-AR) said the bill will raise more than $18 billion by mandating increases in oil, gas, coal, and mineral leases on public lands and waters while reducing royalty rates for producers. That number goes above and beyond the committee’s $1 billion revenue target, but still makes up just a small portion of the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts Republicans are aiming to offset in the tax, border, and energy package.

The following leasing provisions were included:

• Reinstating quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales

• Mandating at least 30 lease sales in the Gulf of America over the next 15 years and six in the Cook Inlet

• Requiring geothermal lease sales

• Resuming leasing for energy production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

• Resuming coal leasing on federal lands

Republicans also pushed through an amendment from Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT), who would authorize the sale of small tracts of public land for development in their respective states, roughly 10,000 acres between the two. The proposal that had long been rumored but was not included in the base text after drawing opposition from both sides of the aisle, including Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), the former Secretary of Interior from 2017-2019, who has said public lands sales are a nonstarter.

In addition to the implications for Nevada and Utah, many fear that the amendment and ensuing sale of public lands set a dangerous precedent for the transfer of land held by the Federal Government. And while the Natural Resources title may still face opposition when the broader bill is brought to the floor of either chamber, the expectation is that the President will pressure holdouts to get in line and pass the bill as-is when the time comes.

The bill also increases timber sales on federal lands and requires long-term timber contracts, dovetailing with the President’s March 1st Executive Order and ensuing USDA Secretarial Memo directing the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to do the same.  

Although Democrats filed dozens of amendments to try to slow down the bill and strip contentious provisions from it, all were ultimately defeated by committee Republicans, who were largely silent during the markup.

If enacted into law, these provisions would mark a seismic shift for public lands policy in the U.S. Their impacts on outdoor recreation and conservation are likely to affect generations to come.