118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1
AN ACT
To lower energy costs by increasing American energy produc-
tion, exports, infrastructure, and critical minerals proc-
essing, by promoting transparency, accountability, per-
mitting, and production of American resources, and by
improving water quality certification and energy projects,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2
‘‘Lower Energy Costs Act’’. 3
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents of 4
this Act is as follows: 5
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
DIVISION A—INCREASING AMERICAN ENERGY PRODUCTION, EX-
PORTS, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND CRITICAL MINERALS PROC-
ESSING
Sec. 10001. Securing America’s critical minerals supply.
Sec. 10002. Protecting American energy production.
Sec. 10003. Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy
Refining.
Sec. 10004. Promoting cross-border energy infrastructure.
Sec. 10005. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the revocation of the
Presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Sec. 10006. Sense of Congress opposing restrictions on the export of crude oil
or other petroleum products.
Sec. 10007. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the denial of Jordan
Cove permits.
Sec. 10008. Unlocking our domestic LNG potential.
Sec. 10009. Promoting interagency coordination for review of natural gas pipe-
lines.
Sec. 10010. Interim hazardous waste permits for critical energy resource facili-
ties.
Sec. 10011. Flexible air permits for critical energy resource facilities.
Sec. 10012. National security or energy security waivers to produce critical en-
ergy resources.
Sec. 10013. Ending future delays in chemical substance review for critical en-
ergy resources.
Sec. 10014. Natural gas tax repeal.
Sec. 10015. Repeal of greenhouse gas reduction fund.
Sec. 10016. Keeping America’s refineries operating.
Sec. 10017. Homeowner energy freedom.
Sec. 10018. Study.
Sec. 10019. State primary enforcement responsibility.
Sec. 10020. Use of index-based pricing in acquisition of petroleum products for
the SPR.
Sec. 10021. Prohibition on certain exports.
Sec. 10022. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the proposed tax hikes
on the oil and natural gas industry in the President’s fiscal
year 2024 budget request.
Sec. 10023. Domestic Energy Independence report.
Sec. 10024. GAO study.
Sec. 10025. Gas kitchen ranges and ovens.
DIVISION B—TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, PERMITTING,
AND PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN RESOURCES 3
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Sec. 20001. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE LEASING AND OVERSIGHT
Sec. 20101. Onshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20102. Lease reinstatement.
Sec. 20103. Protested lease sales.
Sec. 20104. Suspension of operations.
Sec. 20105. Administrative protest process reform.
Sec. 20106. Leasing and permitting transparency.
Sec. 20107. Offshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20108. Five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20109. Geothermal leasing.
Sec. 20110. Leasing for certain qualified coal applications.
Sec. 20111. Future coal leasing.
Sec. 20112. Staff planning report.
Sec. 20113. Prohibition on Chinese communist party ownership interest.
Sec. 20114. Effect on other law.
Sec. 20115. Requirement for GAO report on wind energy impacts.
Sec. 20116. Sense of Congress on wind energy development supply chain.
Sec. 20117. Sense of Congress on oil and gas royalty rates.
Sec. 20118. Offshore wind environmental review process study.
Sec. 20119. GAO report on wind energy impacts.
TITLE II—PERMITTING STREAMLINING
Sec. 20201. Definitions.
Sec. 20202. BUILDER Act.
Sec. 20203. Codification of National Environmental Policy Act regulations.
Sec. 20204. Non-major Federal actions.
Sec. 20205. No net loss determination for existing rights-of-way.
Sec. 20206. Determination of National Environmental Policy Act adequacy.
Sec. 20207. Determination regarding rights-of-way.
Sec. 20208. Terms of rights-of-Way.
Sec. 20209. Funding to process permits and develop information technology.
Sec. 20210. Offshore geological and geophysical survey licensing.
Sec. 20211. Deferral of applications for permits to drill.
Sec. 20212. Processing and terms of applications for permits to drill.
Sec. 20213. Amendments to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Sec. 20214. Access to Federal energy resources from non-Federal surface es-
tate.
Sec. 20215. Scope of environmental reviews for oil and gas leases.
Sec. 20216. Expediting approval of gathering lines.
Sec. 20217. Lease sale litigation.
Sec. 20218. Limitation on claims.
Sec. 20219. Government Accountability Office report on permits to drill.
Sec. 20220. E–NEPA.
Sec. 20221. Limitations on claims.
Sec. 20222. One Federal decision for pipelines.
Sec. 20223. Exemption of certain wildfire mitigation activities from certain en-
vironmental requirements.
Sec. 20224. Vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and
maintenance relating to electric transmission and distribution
facility rights of way.
Sec. 20225. Categorical exclusion for electric utility lines rights-of-way.
Sec. 20226. Staffing plans. 4
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TITLE III—PERMITTING FOR MINING NEEDS
Sec. 20301. Definitions.
Sec. 20302. Minerals supply chain and reliability.
Sec. 20303. Federal register process improvement.
Sec. 20304. Designation of mining as a covered sector for Federal permitting
improvement purposes.
Sec. 20305. Treatment of actions under presidential determination 2022–11 for
Federal permitting improvement purposes.
Sec. 20306. Notice for mineral exploration activities with limited surface dis-
turbance.
Sec. 20307. Use of mining claims for ancillary activities.
Sec. 20308. Ensuring consideration of uranium as a critical mineral.
Sec. 20309. Barring foreign bad actors from operating on Federal lands.
Sec. 20310. Permit process for projects relating to extraction, recovery, or
processing of critical materials.
Sec. 20311. National strategy to re-shore mineral supply chains.
TITLE IV—FEDERAL LAND USE PLANNING
Sec. 20401. Federal land use planning and withdrawals.
Sec. 20402. Prohibitions on delay of mineral development of certain Federal
land.
Sec. 20403. Definitions.
TITLE V—ENSURING COMPETITIVENESS ON FEDERAL LANDS
Sec. 20501. Incentivizing domestic production.
TITLE VI—ENERGY REVENUE SHARING
Sec. 20601. Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf revenue.
Sec. 20602. Parity in offshore wind revenue sharing.
Sec. 20603. Elimination of administrative fee under the Mineral Leasing Act.
Sec. 20604. Sunset.
DIVISION C—WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION AND ENERGY
PROJECT IMPROVEMENT
Sec. 30001. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 30002. Certification.
Sec. 30003. Federal general permits.
DIVISION A—INCREASING AMER-1
ICAN ENERGY PRODUCTION, 2
EXPORTS, INFRASTRUCTURE, 3
AND CRITICAL MINERALS 4
PROCESSING 5
DIVISION A—INCREASING AMERICAN ENERGY PRODUCTION, EX-
PORTS, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND CRITICAL MINERALS PROC-
ESSING
Sec. 10001. Securing America’s critical minerals supply. 5
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Sec. 10002. Protecting American energy production.
Sec. 10003. Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy
Refining.
Sec. 10004. Promoting cross-border energy infrastructure.
Sec. 10005. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the revocation of the
Presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Sec. 10006. Sense of Congress opposing restrictions on the export of crude oil
or other petroleum products.
Sec. 10007. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the denial of Jordan
Cove permits.
Sec. 10008. Unlocking our domestic LNG potential.
Sec. 10009. Promoting interagency coordination for review of natural gas pipe-
lines.
Sec. 10010. Interim hazardous waste permits for critical energy resource facili-
ties.
Sec. 10011. Flexible air permits for critical energy resource facilities.
Sec. 10012. National security or energy security waivers to produce critical en-
ergy resources.
Sec. 10013. Ending future delays in chemical substance review for critical en-
ergy resources.
Sec. 10014. Natural gas tax repeal.
Sec. 10015. Repeal of greenhouse gas reduction fund.
Sec. 10016. Keeping America’s refineries operating.
Sec. 10017. Homeowner energy freedom.
Sec. 10018. Study.
Sec. 10019. State primary enforcement responsibility.
Sec. 10020. Use of index-based pricing in acquisition of petroleum products for
the SPR.
Sec. 10021. Prohibition on certain exports.
Sec. 10022. Sense of Congress expressing disapproval of the proposed tax hikes
on the oil and natural gas industry in the President’s fiscal
year 2024 budget request.
Sec. 10023. Domestic Energy Independence report.
Sec. 10024. GAO study.
Sec. 10025. Gas kitchen ranges and ovens.
SEC. 10001. SECURING AMERICA’S CRITICAL MINERALS
1
SUPPLY. 2
(a) A
MENDMENT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 3
O
RGANIZATIONACT.—The Department of Energy Orga-4
nization Act (42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) is amended— 5
(1) in section 2, by adding at the end the fol-6
lowing: 7 6
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‘‘(d) As used in sections 102(20) and 203(a)(12), the 1
term ‘critical energy resource’ means any energy re-2
source— 3
‘‘(1) that is essential to the energy sector and 4
energy systems of the United States; and 5
‘‘(2) the supply chain of which is vulnerable to 6
disruption.’’; 7
(2) in section 102, by adding at the end the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(20) To ensure there is an adequate and reli-10
able supply of critical energy resources that are es-11
sential to the energy security of the United States.’’; 12
and 13
(3) in section 203(a), by adding at the end the 14
following: 15
‘‘(12) Functions that relate to securing the sup-16
ply of critical energy resources, including identifying 17
and mitigating the effects of a disruption of such 18
supply on— 19
‘‘(A) the development and use of energy 20
technologies; and 21
‘‘(B) the operation of energy systems.’’. 22
(b) S
ECURINGCRITICALENERGYRESOURCESUPPLY 23
C
HAINS.— 24 7
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(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the require-1
ments of the Department of Energy Organization 2
Act (42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.), the Secretary of En-3
ergy, in consultation with the appropriate Federal 4
agencies, representatives of the energy sector, 5
States, and other stakeholders, shall— 6
(A) conduct ongoing assessments of— 7
(i) energy resource criticality based on 8
the importance of critical energy resources 9
to the development of energy technologies 10
and the supply of energy; 11
(ii) the critical energy resource supply 12
chain of the United States; 13
(iii) the vulnerability of such supply 14
chain; and 15
(iv) how the energy security of the 16
United States is affected by the reliance of 17
the United States on importation of critical 18
energy resources; 19
(B) facilitate development of strategies to 20
strengthen critical energy resource supply 21
chains in the United States, including by— 22
(i) diversifying the sources of the sup-23
ply of critical energy resources; and 24 8
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(ii) increasing domestic production, 1
separation, and processing of critical en-2
ergy resources; 3
(C) develop substitutes and alternatives to 4
critical energy resources; and 5
(D) improve technology that reuses and re-6
cycles critical energy resources. 7
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 8
date of enactment of this Act, and annually there-9
after, the Secretary of Energy shall submit to Con-10
gress a report containing— 11
(A) the results of the ongoing assessments 12
conducted under paragraph (1)(A); 13
(B) a description of any actions taken pur-14
suant to the Department of Energy Organiza-15
tion Act to mitigate potential effects of critical 16
energy resource supply chain disruptions on en-17
ergy technologies or the operation of energy 18
systems; and 19
(C) any recommendations relating to 20
strengthening critical energy resource supply 21
chains that are essential to the energy security 22
of the United States. 23
(3) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE DEFINED .— 24
In this section, the term ‘‘critical energy resource’’ 25 9
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has the meaning given such term in section 2 of the 1
Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 2
7101). 3
SEC. 10002. PROTECTING AMERICAN ENERGY PRODUCTION. 4
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-5
gress that States should maintain primacy for the regula-6
tion of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas produc-7
tion on State and private lands. 8
(b) P
ROHIBITION ONDECLARATION OF A MORATO-9
RIUM ON HYDRAULICFRACTURING.—Notwithstanding 10
any other provision of law, the President may not declare 11
a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless 12
such moratorium is authorized by an Act of Congress. 13
SEC. 10003. RESEARCHING EFFICIENT FEDERAL IMPROVE-14
MENTS FOR NECESSARY ENERGY REFINING. 15
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 16
of this section, the Secretary of Energy shall direct the 17
National Petroleum Council to— 18
(1) submit to the Secretary of Energy and Con-19
gress a report containing— 20
(A) an examination of the role of petro-21
chemical refineries located in the United States 22
and the contributions of such petrochemical re-23
fineries to the energy security of the United 24
States, including the reliability of supply in the 25 10
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United States of liquid fuels and feedstocks, 1
and the affordability of liquid fuels for con-2
sumers in the United States; 3
(B) analyses and projections with respect 4
to— 5
(i) the capacity of petrochemical refin-6
eries located in the United States; 7
(ii) opportunities for expanding such 8
capacity; and 9
(iii) the risks to petrochemical refin-10
eries located in the United States; 11
(C) an assessment of any Federal or State 12
executive actions, regulations, or policies that 13
have caused or contributed to a decline in the 14
capacity of petrochemical refineries located in 15
the United States; and 16
(D) any recommendations for Federal 17
agencies and Congress to encourage an increase 18
in the capacity of petrochemical refineries lo-19
cated in the United States; and 20
(2) make publicly available the report submitted 21
under paragraph (1). 22 11
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SEC. 10004. PROMOTING CROSS-BORDER ENERGY INFRA-1
STRUCTURE. 2
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OF CERTAINENERGYINFRA-3
STRUCTUREPROJECTS AT AN INTERNATIONAL BOUND-4
ARY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.— 5
(1) A
UTHORIZATION.—Except as provided in 6
paragraph (3) and subsection (d), no person may 7
construct, connect, operate, or maintain a border- 8
crossing facility for the import or export of oil or 9
natural gas, or the transmission of electricity, across 10
an international border of the United States without 11
obtaining a certificate of crossing for the border- 12
crossing facility under this subsection. 13
(2) C
ERTIFICATE OF CROSSING.— 14
(A) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 120 15
days after final action is taken, by the relevant 16
official or agency identified under subparagraph 17
(B), under the National Environmental Policy 18
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with re-19
spect to a border-crossing facility for which a 20
person requests a certificate of crossing under 21
this subsection, the relevant official or agency, 22
in consultation with appropriate Federal agen-23
cies, shall issue a certificate of crossing for the 24
border-crossing facility unless the relevant offi-25
cial or agency finds that the construction, con-26 12
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nection, operation, or maintenance of the bor-1
der-crossing facility is not in the public interest 2
of the United States. 3
(B) R
ELEVANT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY .— 4
The relevant official or agency referred to in 5
subparagraph (A) is— 6
(i) the Federal Energy Regulatory 7
Commission with respect to border-cross-8
ing facilities consisting of oil or natural 9
gas pipelines; and 10
(ii) the Secretary of Energy with re-11
spect to border-crossing facilities consisting 12
of electric transmission facilities. 13
(C) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR 14
ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION FACILITIES .—In the 15
case of a request for a certificate of crossing for 16
a border-crossing facility consisting of an elec-17
tric transmission facility, the Secretary of En-18
ergy shall require, as a condition of issuing the 19
certificate of crossing under subparagraph (A), 20
that the border-crossing facility be constructed, 21
connected, operated, or maintained consistent 22
with all applicable policies and standards of— 23
(i) the Electric Reliability Organiza-24
tion and the applicable regional entity; and 25 13
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(ii) any Regional Transmission Orga-1
nization or Independent System Operator 2
with operational or functional control over 3
the border-crossing facility. 4
(3) E
XCLUSIONS.—This subsection shall not 5
apply to any construction, connection, operation, or 6
maintenance of a border-crossing facility for the im-7
port or export of oil or natural gas, or the trans-8
mission of electricity— 9
(A) if the border-crossing facility is oper-10
ating for such import, export, or transmission 11
as of the date of enactment of this Act; 12
(B) if a Presidential permit (or similar 13
permit) for the construction, connection, oper-14
ation, or maintenance has been issued pursuant 15
to any provision of law or Executive order; or 16
(C) if an application for a Presidential per-17
mit (or similar permit) for the construction, 18
connection, operation, or maintenance is pend-19
ing on the date of enactment of this Act, until 20
the earlier of— 21
(i) the date on which such application 22
is denied; or 23 14
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(ii) two years after the date of enact-1
ment of this Act, if such a permit has not 2
been issued by such date of enactment. 3
(4) E
FFECT OF OTHER LAWS .— 4
(A) A
PPLICATION TO PROJECTS .—Nothing 5
in this subsection or subsection (d) shall affect 6
the application of any other Federal statute to 7
a project for which a certificate of crossing for 8
a border-crossing facility is requested under 9
this subsection. 10
(B) N
ATURAL GAS ACT.—Nothing in this 11
subsection or subsection (d) shall affect the re-12
quirement to obtain approval or authorization 13
under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act 14
for the siting, construction, or operation of any 15
facility to import or export natural gas. 16
(C) O
IL PIPELINES.—Nothing in this sub-17
section or subsection (d) shall affect the author-18
ity of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-19
sion with respect to oil pipelines under section 20
60502 of title 49, United States Code. 21
(b) T
RANSMISSION OFELECTRICENERGY TOCAN-22
ADA ANDMEXICO.— 23 15
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(1) REPEAL OF REQUIREMENT TO SECURE 1
ORDER.—Section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act 2
(16 U.S.C. 824a(e)) is repealed. 3
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 4
(A) S
TATE REGULATIONS.—Section 202(f) 5
of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824a(f)) 6
is amended by striking ‘‘insofar as such State 7
regulation does not conflict with the exercise of 8
the Commission’s powers under or relating to 9
subsection 202(e)’’. 10
(B) S
EASONAL DIVERSITY ELECTRICITY 11
EXCHANGE.—Section 602(b) of the Public Util-12
ity Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 13
824a–4(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘the Com-14
mission has conducted hearings and made the 15
findings required under section 202(e) of the 16
Federal Power Act’’ and all that follows 17
through the period at the end and inserting 18
‘‘the Secretary has conducted hearings and 19
finds that the proposed transmission facilities 20
would not impair the sufficiency of electric sup-21
ply within the United States or would not im-22
pede or tend to impede the coordination in the 23
public interest of facilities subject to the juris-24
diction of the Secretary.’’. 25 16
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(c) NOPRESIDENTIALPERMITREQUIRED.—No 1
Presidential permit (or similar permit) shall be required 2
pursuant to any provision of law or Executive order for 3
the construction, connection, operation, or maintenance of 4
an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-5
ity, or any border-crossing facility thereof. 6
(d) M
ODIFICATIONS TO EXISTINGPROJECTS.—No 7
certificate of crossing under subsection (a), or Presidential 8
permit (or similar permit), shall be required for a modi-9
fication to— 10
(1) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 11
transmission facility that is operating for the import 12
or export of oil or natural gas or the transmission 13
of electricity as of the date of enactment of this Act; 14
(2) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 15
transmission facility for which a Presidential permit 16
(or similar permit) has been issued pursuant to any 17
provision of law or Executive order; or 18
(3) a border-crossing facility for which a certifi-19
cate of crossing has previously been issued under 20
subsection (a). 21
(e) P
ROHIBITION ONREVOCATION OFPRESIDENTIAL 22
P
ERMITS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 23
the President may not revoke a Presidential permit (or 24
similar permit) issued pursuant to Executive Order No. 25 17
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13337 (3 U.S.C. 301 note), Executive Order No. 11423 1
(3 U.S.C. 301 note), Executive Order No. 12038 (43 Fed. 2
Reg. 4957), Executive Order No. 10485 (18 Fed. Reg. 3
5397), or any other Executive order for the construction, 4
connection, operation, or maintenance of an oil or natural 5
gas pipeline or electric transmission facility, or any bor-6
der-crossing facility thereof, unless such revocation is au-7
thorized by an Act of Congress. 8
(f) E
FFECTIVEDATE; RULEMAKINGDEADLINES.— 9
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE .—Subsections (a) 10
through (d), and the amendments made by such 11
subsections, shall take effect on the date that is 1 12
year after the date of enactment of this Act. 13
(2) R
ULEMAKING DEADLINES .—Each relevant 14
official or agency described in subsection (a)(2)(B) 15
shall— 16
(A) not later than 180 days after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 18
Register notice of a proposed rulemaking to 19
carry out the applicable requirements of sub-20
section (a); and 21
(B) not later than 1 year after the date of 22
enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 23
Register a final rule to carry out the applicable 24
requirements of subsection (a). 25 18
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(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1
(1) B
ORDER-CROSSING FACILITY.—The term 2
‘‘border-crossing facility’’ means the portion of an oil 3
or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-4
ity that is located at an international boundary of 5
the United States. 6
(2) M
ODIFICATION.—The term ‘‘modification’’ 7
includes a reversal of flow direction, change in own-8
ership, change in flow volume, addition or removal 9
of an interconnection, or an adjustment to maintain 10
flow (such as a reduction or increase in the number 11
of pump or compressor stations). 12
(3) N
ATURAL GAS.—The term ‘‘natural gas’’ 13
has the meaning given that term in section 2 of the 14
Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717a). 15
(4) O
IL.—The term ‘‘oil’’ means petroleum or 16
a petroleum product. 17
(5) E
LECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION ; RE-18
GIONAL ENTITY.—The terms ‘‘Electric Reliability 19
Organization’’ and ‘‘regional entity’’ have the mean-20
ings given those terms in section 215 of the Federal 21
Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o). 22
(6) I
NDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR ; RE-23
GIONAL TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION .—The terms 24
‘‘Independent System Operator’’ and ‘‘Regional 25 19
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Transmission Organization’’ have the meanings 1
given those terms in section 3 of the Federal Power 2
Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 3
SEC. 10005. SENSE OF CONGRESS EXPRESSING DIS-4
APPROVAL OF THE REVOCATION OF THE 5
PRESIDENTIAL PERMIT FOR THE KEYSTONE 6
XL PIPELINE. 7
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8
(1) On March 29, 2019, TransCanada Key-9
stone Pipeline, L.P., was granted a Presidential per-10
mit to construct, connect, operate, and maintain the 11
Keystone XL pipeline. 12
(2) On January 20, 2021, President Biden 13
issued Executive Order No. 13990 (86 Fed. Reg. 14
7037) that revoked the March 2019 Presidential 15
permit for the Keystone XL. 16
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-17
gress that Congress disapproves of the revocation by 18
President Biden of the Presidential permit for the Key-19
stone XL pipeline. 20
SEC. 10006. SENSE OF CONGRESS OPPOSING RESTRICTIONS 21
ON THE EXPORT OF CRUDE OIL OR OTHER 22
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS. 23
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 24 20
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(1) The United States has enjoyed a renais-1
sance in energy production, with the expansion of 2
domestic crude oil and other petroleum product pro-3
duction contributing to enhanced energy security 4
and significant economic benefits to the national 5
economy. 6
(2) In 2015, Congress recognized the need to 7
adapt to changing crude oil market conditions and 8
repealed all restrictions on the export of crude oil on 9
a bipartisan basis. 10
(3) Section 101 of title I of division O of the 11
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (42 U.S.C. 12
6212a) established the national policy on oil export 13
restriction, prohibiting any official of the Federal 14
Government from imposing or enforcing any restric-15
tions on the export of crude oil with limited excep-16
tions, including a savings clause maintaining the au-17
thority to prohibit exports under any provision of 18
law that imposes sanctions on a foreign person or 19
foreign government (including any provision of law 20
that prohibits or restricts United States persons 21
from engaging in a transaction with a sanctioned 22
person or government), including a foreign govern-23
ment that is designated as a state sponsor of ter-24
rorism. 25 21
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(4) Lifting the restrictions on crude oil exports 1
encouraged additional domestic energy production, 2
created American jobs and economic development, 3
and allowed the United States to emerge as the lead-4
ing oil producer in the world. 5
(5) In 2019, the United States became a net 6
exporter of petroleum products for the first time 7
since 1952, and the reliance of the United States on 8
foreign imports of petroleum products has declined 9
to historic lows. 10
(6) Free trade, open markets, and competition 11
have contributed to the rise of the United States as 12
a global energy superpower. 13
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-14
gress that the Federal Government should not impose— 15
(1) overly restrictive regulations on the explo-16
ration, production, or marketing of energy resources; 17
or 18
(2) any restrictions on the export of crude oil 19
or other petroleum products under the Energy Pol-20
icy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6201 et seq.), 21
except with respect to the export of crude oil or 22
other petroleum products to a foreign person or for-23
eign government subject to sanctions under any pro-24
vision of United States law, including to a country 25 22
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the government of which is designated as a state 1
sponsor of terrorism. 2
SEC. 10007. SENSE OF CONGRESS EXPRESSING DIS-3
APPROVAL OF THE DENIAL OF JORDAN COVE 4
PERMITS. 5
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 6
(1) On March 19, 2020, the Federal Energy 7
Regulatory Commission granted two Federal permits 8
to Jordan Cove Energy Project, L.P., to site, con-9
struct, and operate a new liquefied natural gas ex-10
port terminal in Coos County, Oregon. 11
(2) On the same day, the Federal Energy Regu-12
latory Commission issued a certificate of public con-13
venience and necessity to Pacific Connector Gas 14
Pipeline, L.P., to construct and operate the proposed 15
Pacific Connector Pipeline in the counties of Klam-16
ath, Jackson, Douglas, and Coos of Oregon. 17
(3) The State of Oregon denied the permits and 18
the certificate necessary for these projects. 19
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-20
gress that Congress disapproves of the denial of these per-21
mits by the State of Oregon. 22
SEC. 10008. UNLOCKING OUR DOMESTIC LNG POTENTIAL. 23
Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) 24
is amended— 25 23
•HR 1 EH
(1) by striking subsections (a) through (c); 1
(2) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as 2
subsections (a) and (b), respectively; 3
(3) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-4
section (c), and moving such subsection after sub-5
section (b), as so redesignated; 6
(4) in subsection (a), as so redesignated, by 7
amending paragraph (1) to read as follows: ‘‘(1) The 8
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (in this sub-9
section referred to as the ‘Commission’) shall have 10
the exclusive authority to approve or deny an appli-11
cation for authorization for the siting, construction, 12
expansion, or operation of a facility to export nat-13
ural gas from the United States to a foreign country 14
or import natural gas from a foreign country, in-15
cluding an LNG terminal. In determining whether to 16
approve or deny an application under this para-17
graph, the Commission shall deem the exportation or 18
importation of natural gas to be consistent with the 19
public interest. Except as specifically provided in 20
this Act, nothing in this Act is intended to affect 21
otherwise applicable law related to any Federal 22
agency’s authorities or responsibilities related to fa-23
cilities to import or export natural gas, including 24
LNG terminals.’’; and 25 24
•HR 1 EH
(5) by adding at the end the following new sub-1
section: 2
‘‘(d)(1) Nothing in this Act limits the authority of 3
the President under the Constitution, the International 4
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et 5
seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et 6
seq.), part B of title II of the Energy Policy and Conserva-7
tion Act (42 U.S.C. 6271 et seq.), the Trading With the 8
Enemy Act (50 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.), or any other provi-9
sion of law that imposes sanctions on a foreign person or 10
foreign government (including any provision of law that 11
prohibits or restricts United States persons from engaging 12
in a transaction with a sanctioned person or government), 13
including a country that is designated as a state sponsor 14
of terrorism, to prohibit imports or exports. 15
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘state sponsor of ter-16
rorism’ means a country the government of which the Sec-17
retary of State determines has repeatedly provided sup-18
port for international terrorism pursuant to— 19
‘‘(A) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export Con-20
trol Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4318(c)(1)(A)); 21
‘‘(B) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance 22
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 23
‘‘(C) section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act 24
(22 U.S.C. 2780); or 25 25
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(D) any other provision of law.’’. 1
SEC. 10009. PROMOTING INTERAGENCY COORDINATION 2
FOR REVIEW OF NATURAL GAS PIPELINES. 3
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 5
means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 6
(2) F
EDERAL AUTHORIZATION .—The term 7
‘‘Federal authorization’’ has the meaning given that 8
term in section 15(a) of the Natural Gas Act (15 9
U.S.C. 717n(a)). 10
(3) NEPA
REVIEW.—The term ‘‘NEPA review’’ 11
means the process of reviewing a proposed Federal 12
action under section 102 of the National Environ-13
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332). 14
(4) P
ROJECT-RELATED NEPA REVIEW .—The 15
term ‘‘project-related NEPA review’’ means any 16
NEPA review required to be conducted with respect 17
to the issuance of an authorization under section 3 18
of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public con-19
venience and necessity under section 7 of such Act. 20
(b) C
OMMISSIONNEPA REVIEWRESPONSIBIL-21
ITIES.—In acting as the lead agency under section 22
15(b)(1) of the Natural Gas Act for the purposes of com-23
plying with the National Environmental Policy Act of 24
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with respect to an author-25 26
•HR 1 EH
ization under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certifi-1
cate of public convenience and necessity under section 7 2
of such Act, the Commission shall, in accordance with this 3
section and other applicable Federal law— 4
(1) be the only lead agency; 5
(2) coordinate as early as practicable with each 6
agency designated as a participating agency under 7
subsection (d)(3) to ensure that the Commission de-8
velops information in conducting its project-related 9
NEPA review that is usable by the participating 10
agency in considering an aspect of an application for 11
a Federal authorization for which the agency is re-12
sponsible; and 13
(3) take such actions as are necessary and 14
proper to facilitate the expeditious resolution of its 15
project-related NEPA review. 16
(c) D
EFERENCE TOCOMMISSION.—In making a deci-17
sion with respect to a Federal authorization required with 18
respect to an application for authorization under section 19
3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public conven-20
ience and necessity under section 7 of such Act, each agen-21
cy shall give deference, to the maximum extent authorized 22
by law, to the scope of the project-related NEPA review 23
that the Commission determines to be appropriate. 24
(d) P
ARTICIPATINGAGENCIES.— 25 27
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(1) IDENTIFICATION.—The Commission shall 1
identify, not later than 30 days after the Commis-2
sion receives an application for an authorization 3
under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certifi-4
cate of public convenience and necessity under sec-5
tion 7 of such Act, any Federal or State agency, 6
local government, or Indian Tribe that may issue a 7
Federal authorization or is required by Federal law 8
to consult with the Commission in conjunction with 9
the issuance of a Federal authorization required for 10
such authorization or certificate. 11
(2) I
NVITATION.— 12
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days 13
after the Commission receives an application for 14
an authorization under section 3 of the Natural 15
Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience 16
and necessity under section 7 of such Act, the 17
Commission shall invite any agency identified 18
under paragraph (1) to participate in the review 19
process for the applicable Federal authorization. 20
(B) D
EADLINE.—An invitation issued 21
under subparagraph (A) shall establish a dead-22
line by which a response to the invitation shall 23
be submitted to the Commission, which may be 24
extended by the Commission for good cause. 25 28
•HR 1 EH
(3) DESIGNATION AS PARTICIPATING AGEN -1
CIES.—Not later than 60 days after the Commission 2
receives an application for an authorization under 3
section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of 4
public convenience and necessity under section 7 of 5
such Act, the Commission shall designate an agency 6
identified under paragraph (1) as a participating 7
agency with respect to an application for authoriza-8
tion under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 9
certificate of public convenience and necessity under 10
section 7 of such Act unless the agency informs the 11
Commission, in writing, by the deadline established 12
pursuant to paragraph (2)(B), that the agency— 13
(A) has no jurisdiction or authority with 14
respect to the applicable Federal authorization; 15
(B) has no special expertise or information 16
relevant to any project-related NEPA review; or 17
(C) does not intend to submit comments 18
for the record for the project-related NEPA re-19
view conducted by the Commission. 20
(4) E
FFECT OF NON-DESIGNATION.— 21
(A) E
FFECT ON AGENCY .—Any agency 22
that is not designated as a participating agency 23
under paragraph (3) with respect to an applica-24
tion for an authorization under section 3 of the 25 29
•HR 1 EH
Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public con-1
venience and necessity under section 7 of such 2
Act may not request or conduct a NEPA review 3
that is supplemental to the project-related 4
NEPA review conducted by the Commission, 5
unless the agency— 6
(i) demonstrates that such review is 7
legally necessary for the agency to carry 8
out responsibilities in considering an as-9
pect of an application for a Federal au-10
thorization; and 11
(ii) requires information that could 12
not have been obtained during the project- 13
related NEPA review conducted by the 14
Commission. 15
(B) C
OMMENTS; RECORD.—The Commis-16
sion shall not, with respect to an agency that is 17
not designated as a participating agency under 18
paragraph (3) with respect to an application for 19
an authorization under section 3 of the Natural 20
Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience 21
and necessity under section 7 of such Act— 22
(i) consider any comments or other in-23
formation submitted by such agency for 24 30
•HR 1 EH
the project-related NEPA review conducted 1
by the Commission; or 2
(ii) include any such comments or 3
other information in the record for such 4
project-related NEPA review. 5
(e) W
ATERQUALITYIMPACTS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 401 7
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 8
U.S.C. 1341), an applicant for a Federal authoriza-9
tion shall not be required to provide a certification 10
under such section with respect to the Federal au-11
thorization. 12
(2) C
OORDINATION.—With respect to any 13
NEPA review for a Federal authorization to conduct 14
an activity that will directly result in a discharge 15
into the navigable waters (within the meaning of the 16
Federal Water Pollution Control Act), the Commis-17
sion shall identify as an agency under subsection 18
(d)(1) the State in which the discharge originates or 19
will originate, or, if appropriate, the interstate water 20
pollution control agency having jurisdiction over the 21
navigable waters at the point where the discharge 22
originates or will originate. 23
(3) P
ROPOSED CONDITIONS .—A State or inter-24
state agency designated as a participating agency 25 31
•HR 1 EH
pursuant to paragraph (2) may propose to the Com-1
mission terms or conditions for inclusion in an au-2
thorization under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act 3
or a certificate of public convenience and necessity 4
under section 7 of such Act that the State or inter-5
state agency determines are necessary to ensure that 6
any activity described in paragraph (2) conducted 7
pursuant to such authorization or certification will 8
comply with the applicable provisions of sections 9
301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 of the Federal Water 10
Pollution Control Act. 11
(4) C
OMMISSION CONSIDERATION OF CONDI -12
TIONS.—The Commission may include a term or 13
condition in an authorization under section 3 of the 14
Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public conven-15
ience and necessity under section 7 of such Act pro-16
posed by a State or interstate agency under para-17
graph (3) only if the Commission finds that the term 18
or condition is necessary to ensure that any activity 19
described in paragraph (2) conducted pursuant to 20
such authorization or certification will comply with 21
the applicable provisions of sections 301, 302, 303, 22
306, and 307 of the Federal Water Pollution Con-23
trol Act. 24
(f) S
CHEDULE.— 25 32
•HR 1 EH
(1) DEADLINE FOR FEDERAL AUTHORIZA -1
TIONS.—A deadline for a Federal authorization re-2
quired with respect to an application for authoriza-3
tion under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 4
certificate of public convenience and necessity under 5
section 7 of such Act set by the Commission under 6
section 15(c)(1) of such Act shall be not later than 7
90 days after the Commission completes its project- 8
related NEPA review, unless an applicable schedule 9
is otherwise established by Federal law. 10
(2) C
ONCURRENT REVIEWS .—Each Federal and 11
State agency— 12
(A) that may consider an application for a 13
Federal authorization required with respect to 14
an application for authorization under section 3 15
of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public 16
convenience and necessity under section 7 of 17
such Act shall formulate and implement a plan 18
for administrative, policy, and procedural mech-19
anisms to enable the agency to ensure comple-20
tion of Federal authorizations in compliance 21
with schedules established by the Commission 22
under section 15(c)(1) of such Act; and 23
(B) in considering an aspect of an applica-24
tion for a Federal authorization required with 25 33
•HR 1 EH
respect to an application for authorization 1
under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 2
certificate of public convenience and necessity 3
under section 7 of such Act, shall— 4
(i) formulate and implement a plan to 5
enable the agency to comply with the 6
schedule established by the Commission 7
under section 15(c)(1) of such Act; 8
(ii) carry out the obligations of that 9
agency under applicable law concurrently, 10
and in conjunction with, the project-related 11
NEPA review conducted by the Commis-12
sion, and in compliance with the schedule 13
established by the Commission under sec-14
tion 15(c)(1) of such Act, unless the agen-15
cy notifies the Commission in writing that 16
doing so would impair the ability of the 17
agency to conduct needed analysis or oth-18
erwise carry out such obligations; 19
(iii) transmit to the Commission a 20
statement— 21
(I) acknowledging receipt of the 22
schedule established by the Commis-23
sion under section 15(c)(1) of the 24
Natural Gas Act; and 25 34
•HR 1 EH
(II) setting forth the plan formu-1
lated under clause (i) of this subpara-2
graph; 3
(iv) not later than 30 days after the 4
agency receives such application for a Fed-5
eral authorization, transmit to the appli-6
cant a notice— 7
(I) indicating whether such appli-8
cation is ready for processing; and 9
(II) if such application is not 10
ready for processing, that includes a 11
comprehensive description of the in-12
formation needed for the agency to 13
determine that the application is 14
ready for processing; 15
(v) determine that such application 16
for a Federal authorization is ready for 17
processing for purposes of clause (iv) if 18
such application is sufficiently complete for 19
the purposes of commencing consideration, 20
regardless of whether supplemental infor-21
mation is necessary to enable the agency to 22
complete the consideration required by law 23
with respect to such application; and 24 35
•HR 1 EH
(vi) not less often than once every 90 1
days, transmit to the Commission a report 2
describing the progress made in consid-3
ering such application for a Federal au-4
thorization. 5
(3) F
AILURE TO MEET DEADLINE .—If a Fed-6
eral or State agency, including the Commission, fails 7
to meet a deadline for a Federal authorization set 8
forth in the schedule established by the Commission 9
under section 15(c)(1) of the Natural Gas Act, not 10
later than 5 days after such deadline, the head of 11
the relevant Federal agency (including, in the case 12
of a failure by a State agency, the Federal agency 13
overseeing the delegated authority) shall notify Con-14
gress and the Commission of such failure and set 15
forth a recommended implementation plan to ensure 16
completion of the action to which such deadline ap-17
plied. 18
(g) C
ONSIDERATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR FED-19
ERALAUTHORIZATION.— 20
(1) I
SSUE IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLU -21
TION.— 22
(A) I
DENTIFICATION.—Federal and State 23
agencies that may consider an aspect of an ap-24
plication for a Federal authorization shall iden-25 36
•HR 1 EH
tify, as early as possible, any issues of concern 1
that may delay or prevent an agency from 2
working with the Commission to resolve such 3
issues and granting such authorization. 4
(B) I
SSUE RESOLUTION.—The Commission 5
may forward any issue of concern identified 6
under subparagraph (A) to the heads of the rel-7
evant agencies (including, in the case of an 8
issue of concern that is a failure by a State 9
agency, the Federal agency overseeing the dele-10
gated authority, if applicable) for resolution. 11
(2) R
EMOTE SURVEYS.—If a Federal or State 12
agency considering an aspect of an application for a 13
Federal authorization requires the person applying 14
for such authorization to submit data, the agency 15
shall consider any such data gathered by aerial or 16
other remote means that the person submits. The 17
agency may grant a conditional approval for the 18
Federal authorization based on data gathered by 19
aerial or remote means, conditioned on the 20
verification of such data by subsequent onsite in-21
spection. 22
(3) A
PPLICATION PROCESSING .—The Commis-23
sion, and Federal and State agencies, may allow a 24
person applying for a Federal authorization to fund 25 37
•HR 1 EH
a third-party contractor to assist in reviewing the 1
application for such authorization. 2
(h) A
CCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY, EFFI-3
CIENCY.—For an application for an authorization under 4
section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public 5
convenience and necessity under section 7 of such Act that 6
requires multiple Federal authorizations, the Commission, 7
with input from any Federal or State agency considering 8
an aspect of the application, shall track and make avail-9
able to the public on the Commission’s website information 10
related to the actions required to complete the Federal au-11
thorizations. Such information shall include the following: 12
(1) The schedule established by the Commission 13
under section 15(c)(1) of the Natural Gas Act. 14
(2) A list of all the actions required by each ap-15
plicable agency to complete permitting, reviews, and 16
other actions necessary to obtain a final decision on 17
the application. 18
(3) The expected completion date for each such 19
action. 20
(4) A point of contact at the agency responsible 21
for each such action. 22
(5) In the event that an action is still pending 23
as of the expected date of completion, a brief expla-24
nation of the reasons for the delay. 25 38
•HR 1 EH
(i) PIPELINESECURITY.—In considering an applica-1
tion for an authorization under section 3 of the Natural 2
Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience and neces-3
sity under section 7 of such Act, the Federal Energy Reg-4
ulatory Commission shall consult with the Administrator 5
of the Transportation Security Administration regarding 6
the applicant’s compliance with security guidance and best 7
practice recommendations of the Administration regarding 8
pipeline infrastructure security, pipeline cybersecurity, 9
pipeline personnel security, and other pipeline security 10
measures. 11
(j) W
ITHDRAWAL OF POLICYSTATEMENTS.—The 12
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shall withdraw— 13
(1) the updated policy statement titled ‘‘Certifi-14
cation of New Interstate Natural Gas Facilities’’ 15
published in the Federal Register on March 1, 2022 16
(87 Fed. Reg. 11548); and 17
(2) the interim policy statement titled ‘‘Consid-18
eration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Natural 19
Gas Infrastructure Project Reviews’’ published in 20
the Federal Register on March 11, 2022 (87 Fed. 21
Reg. 14104). 22 39
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 10010. INTERIM HAZARDOUS WASTE PERMITS FOR 1
CRITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE FACILITIES. 2
Section 3005(e) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 3
U.S.C. 6925(e)) is amended— 4
(1) in paragraph (1)(A)— 5
(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 6
end; 7
(B) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘or’’ after 8
‘‘this section,’’; and 9
(C) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(iii) is a critical energy resource facility,’’; 11
and 12
(2) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(4) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this sub-14
section: 15
‘‘(A) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE .—The term 16
‘critical energy resource’ means, as determined by 17
the Secretary of Energy, any energy resource— 18
‘‘(i) that is essential to the energy sector 19
and energy systems of the United States; and 20
‘‘(ii) the supply chain of which is vulner-21
able to disruption. 22
‘‘(B) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE FACILITY .— 23
The term ‘critical energy resource facility’ means a 24
facility that processes or refines a critical energy re-25
source.’’. 26 40
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 10011. FLEXIBLE AIR PERMITS FOR CRITICAL ENERGY 1
RESOURCE FACILITIES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator of the Envi-3
ronmental Protection Agency shall, as necessary, revise 4
regulations under parts 70 and 71 of title 40, Code of 5
Federal Regulations, to— 6
(1) authorize the owner or operator of a critical 7
energy resource facility to utilize flexible air permit-8
ting (as described in the final rule titled ‘‘Operating 9
Permit Programs; Flexible Air Permitting Rule’’ 10
published by the Environmental Protection Agency 11
in the Federal Register on October 6, 2009 (74 Fed. 12
Reg. 51418)) with respect to such critical energy re-13
source facility; and 14
(2) facilitate flexible, market-responsive oper-15
ations (as described in the final rule identified in 16
paragraph (1)) with respect to critical energy re-17
source facilities. 18
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
(1) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE .—The term 20
‘‘critical energy resource’’ means, as determined by 21
the Secretary of Energy, any energy resource— 22
(A) that is essential to the energy sector 23
and energy systems of the United States; and 24
(B) the supply chain of which is vulnerable 25
to disruption. 26 41
•HR 1 EH
(2) CRITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE FACILITY .— 1
The term ‘‘critical energy resource facility’’ means a 2
facility that processes or refines a critical energy re-3
source. 4
SEC. 10012. NATIONAL SECURITY OR ENERGY SECURITY 5
WAIVERS TO PRODUCE CRITICAL ENERGY 6
RESOURCES. 7
(a) C
LEANAIRACTREQUIREMENTS.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Administrator of the 9
Environmental Protection Agency, in consultation 10
with the Secretary of Energy, determines that, by 11
reason of a sudden increase in demand for, or a 12
shortage of, a critical energy resource, or another 13
cause, the processing or refining of a critical energy 14
resource at a critical energy resource facility is nec-15
essary to meet the national security or energy secu-16
rity needs of the United States, then the Adminis-17
trator may, with or without notice, hearing, or other 18
report, issue a temporary waiver of any requirement 19
under the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) 20
with respect to such critical energy resource facility 21
that, in the judgment of the Administrator, will 22
allow for such processing or refining at such critical 23
energy resource facility as necessary to best meet 24
such needs and serve the public interest. 25 42
•HR 1 EH
(2) CONFLICT WITH OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL 1
LAWS.—The Administrator shall ensure that any 2
waiver of a requirement under the Clean Air Act 3
under this subsection, to the maximum extent prac-4
ticable, does not result in a conflict with a require-5
ment of any other applicable Federal, State, or local 6
environmental law or regulation and minimizes any 7
adverse environmental impacts. 8
(3) V
IOLATIONS OF OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL 9
LAWS.—To the extent any omission or action taken 10
by a party under a waiver issued under this sub-11
section is in conflict with any requirement of a Fed-12
eral, State, or local environmental law or regulation, 13
such omission or action shall not be considered a 14
violation of such environmental law or regulation, or 15
subject such party to any requirement, civil or crimi-16
nal liability, or a citizen suit under such environ-17
mental law or regulation. 18
(4) E
XPIRATION AND RENEWAL OF WAIVERS .— 19
A waiver issued under this subsection shall expire 20
not later than 90 days after it is issued. The Admin-21
istrator may renew or reissue such waiver pursuant 22
to paragraphs (1) and (2) for subsequent periods, 23
not to exceed 90 days for each period, as the Admin-24
istrator determines necessary to meet the national 25 43
•HR 1 EH
security or energy security needs described in para-1
graph (1) and serve the public interest. In renewing 2
or reissuing a waiver under this paragraph, the Ad-3
ministrator shall include in any such renewed or re-4
issued waiver such conditions as are necessary to 5
minimize any adverse environmental impacts to the 6
extent practicable. 7
(5) S
UBSEQUENT ACTION BY COURT .—If a 8
waiver issued under this subsection is subsequently 9
stayed, modified, or set aside by a court pursuant a 10
provision of law, any omission or action previously 11
taken by a party under the waiver while the waiver 12
was in effect shall remain subject to paragraph (3). 13
(6) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE ; CRITICAL EN-14
ERGY RESOURCE FACILITY DEFINED .—The terms 15
‘‘critical energy resource’’ and ‘‘critical energy re-16
source facility’’ have the meanings given such terms 17
in section 3025(f) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act 18
(as added by this section). 19
(b) S
OLIDWASTEDISPOSALACTREQUIREMENTS.— 20
(1) H
AZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT .—The 21
Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.) 22
is amended by inserting after section 3024 the fol-23
lowing: 24 44
•HR 1 EH
‘‘SEC. 3025. WAIVERS FOR CRITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE 1
FACILITIES. 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—If the Administrator, in con-3
sultation with the Secretary of Energy, determines that, 4
by reason of a sudden increase in demand for, or a short-5
age of, a critical energy resource, or another cause, the 6
processing or refining of a critical energy resource at a 7
critical energy resource facility is necessary to meet the 8
national security or energy security needs of the United 9
States, then the Administrator may, with or without no-10
tice, hearing, or other report, issue a temporary waiver 11
of any covered requirement with respect to such critical 12
energy resource facility that, in the judgment of the Ad-13
ministrator, will allow for such processing or refining at 14
such critical energy resource facility as necessary to best 15
meet such needs and serve the public interest. 16
‘‘(b) C
ONFLICTWITHOTHERENVIRONMENTAL 17
L
AWS.—The Administrator shall ensure that any waiver 18
of a covered requirement under this section, to the max-19
imum extent practicable, does not result in a conflict with 20
a requirement of any other applicable Federal, State, or 21
local environmental law or regulation and minimizes any 22
adverse environmental impacts. 23
‘‘(c) V
IOLATIONS OF OTHERENVIRONMENTAL 24
L
AWS.—To the extent any omission or action taken by 25
a party under a waiver issued under this section is in con-26 45
•HR 1 EH
flict with any requirement of a Federal, State, or local 1
environmental law or regulation, such omission or action 2
shall not be considered a violation of such environmental 3
law or regulation, or subject such party to any require-4
ment, civil or criminal liability, or a citizen suit under such 5
environmental law or regulation. 6
‘‘(d) E
XPIRATION ANDRENEWAL OFWAIVERS.—A 7
waiver issued under this section shall expire not later than 8
90 days after it is issued. The Administrator may renew 9
or reissue such waiver pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) 10
for subsequent periods, not to exceed 90 days for each pe-11
riod, as the Administrator determines necessary to meet 12
the national security or energy security needs described 13
in subsection (a) and serve the public interest. In renewing 14
or reissuing a waiver under this subsection, the Adminis-15
trator shall include in any such renewed or reissued waiver 16
such conditions as are necessary to minimize any adverse 17
environmental impacts to the extent practicable. 18
‘‘(e) S
UBSEQUENTACTION BYCOURT.—If a waiver 19
issued under this section is subsequently stayed, modified, 20
or set aside by a court pursuant a provision of law, any 21
omission or action previously taken by a party under the 22
waiver while the waiver was in effect shall remain subject 23
to subsection (c). 24
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25 46
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(1) COVERED REQUIREMENT .—The term ‘cov-1
ered requirement’ means— 2
‘‘(A) any standard established under sec-3
tion 3002, 3003, or 3004; 4
‘‘(B) the permit requirement under section 5
3005; or 6
‘‘(C) any other requirement of this Act, as 7
the Administrator determines appropriate. 8
‘‘(2) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE .—The term 9
‘critical energy resource’ means, as determined by 10
the Secretary of Energy, any energy resource— 11
‘‘(A) that is essential to the energy sector 12
and energy systems of the United States; and 13
‘‘(B) the supply chain of which is vulner-14
able to disruption. 15
‘‘(3) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE FACILITY .— 16
The term ‘critical energy resource facility’ means a 17
facility that processes or refines a critical energy re-18
source.’’. 19
(2) T
ABLE OF CONTENTS .—The table of con-20
tents of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is amended by 21
inserting after the item relating to section 3024 the 22
following: 23
‘‘Sec. 3025. Waivers for critical energy resource facilities.’’. 47
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 10013. ENDING FUTURE DELAYS IN CHEMICAL SUB-1
STANCE REVIEW FOR CRITICAL ENERGY RE-2
SOURCES. 3
Section 5(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 4
U.S.C. 2604(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(6) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCES .— 7
‘‘(A) S
TANDARD.—For purposes of a de-8
termination under paragraph (3) with respect 9
to a chemical substance that is a critical energy 10
resource, the Administrator shall take into con-11
sideration economic, societal, and environmental 12
costs and benefits, notwithstanding any require-13
ment of this section to not take such factors 14
into consideration. 15
‘‘(B) F
AILURE TO RENDER DETERMINA -16
TION.— 17
‘‘(i) A
CTIONS AUTHORIZED .—If, with 18
respect to a chemical substance that is a 19
critical energy resource, the Administrator 20
fails to make a determination on a notice 21
under paragraph (3) by the end of the ap-22
plicable review period and the notice has 23
not been withdrawn by the submitter, the 24
submitter may take the actions described 25
in paragraph (1)(A) with respect to the 26 48
•HR 1 EH
chemical substance, and the Administrator 1
shall be relieved of any requirement to 2
make such determination. 3
‘‘(ii) N
ON-DUPLICATION.—A refund of 4
applicable fees under paragraph (4)(A) 5
shall not be made if a submitter takes an 6
action described in paragraph (1)(A) under 7
this subparagraph. 8
‘‘(C) P
REREQUISITE FOR SUGGESTION OF 9
WITHDRAWAL OR SUSPENSION .—The Adminis-10
trator may not suggest to, or request of, a sub-11
mitter of a notice under this subsection for a 12
chemical substance that is a critical energy re-13
source that such submitter withdraw such no-14
tice, or request a suspension of the running of 15
the applicable review period with respect to 16
such notice, unless the Administrator has— 17
‘‘(i) conducted a preliminary review of 18
such notice; and 19
‘‘(ii) provided to the submitter a draft 20
of a determination under paragraph (3), 21
including any supporting information. 22
‘‘(D) D
EFINITION.—For purposes of this 23
paragraph, the term ‘critical energy resource’ 24 49
•HR 1 EH
means, as determined by the Secretary of En-1
ergy, any energy resource— 2
‘‘(i) that is essential to the energy sec-3
tor and energy systems of the United 4
States; and 5
‘‘(ii) the supply chain of which is vul-6
nerable to disruption.’’. 7
SEC. 10014. NATURAL GAS TAX REPEAL. 8
(a) R
EPEAL.—Section 136 of the Clean Air Act (42 9
U.S.C. 7436)(relating to methane emissions and waste re-10
duction incentive program for petroleum and natural gas 11
systems) is repealed. 12
(b) R
ESCISSION.—The unobligated balance of any 13
amounts made available under section 136 of the Clean 14
Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7436)(as in effect on the day before 15
the date of enactment of this Act) is rescinded. 16
SEC. 10015. REPEAL OF GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION 17
FUND. 18
(a) R
EPEAL.—Section 134 of the Clean Air Act (42 19
U.S.C. 7434)(relating to the greenhouse gas reduction 20
fund) is repealed. 21
(b) R
ESCISSION.—The unobligated balance of any 22
amounts made available under section 134 of the Clean 23
Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7434)(as in effect on the day before 24
the date of enactment of this Act) is rescinded. 25 50
•HR 1 EH
(c) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 60103 of 1
Public Law 117–169 (relating to the greenhouse gas re-2
duction fund) is repealed. 3
SEC. 10016. KEEPING AMERICA’S REFINERIES OPERATING. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The owner or operator of a sta-5
tionary source described in subsection (b) of this section 6
shall not be required by the regulations promulgated 7
under section 112(r)(7)(B) of the Clean Air Act (42 8
U.S.C. 7412(r)(7)(B)) to include in any hazard assess-9
ment under clause (ii) of such section 112(r)(7)(B) an as-10
sessment of safer technology and alternative risk manage-11
ment measures with respect to the use of hydrofluoric acid 12
in an alkylation unit. 13
(b) S
TATIONARYSOURCEDESCRIBED.—A stationary 14
source described in this subsection is a stationary source 15
(as defined in section 112(r)(2)(C) of the Clean Air Act 16
(42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(2)(C)) in North American Industry 17
Classification System code 324— 18
(1) for which a construction permit or operating 19
permit has been issued pursuant to the Clean Air 20
Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.); or 21
(2) for which the owner or operator dem-22
onstrates to the Administrator of the Environmental 23
Protection Agency that such stationary source con-24
forms or will conform to the most recent version of 25 51
•HR 1 EH
American Petroleum Institute Recommended Prac-1
tice 751. 2
SEC. 10017. HOMEOWNER ENERGY FREEDOM. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The following are repealed: 4
(1) Section 50122 of Public Law 117–169 (42 5
U.S.C. 18795a) (relating to a high-efficiency electric 6
home rebate program). 7
(2) Section 50123 of Public Law 117–169 (42 8
U.S.C. 18795b) (relating to State-based home en-9
ergy efficiency contractor training grants). 10
(3) Section 50131 of Public Law 117–169 (136 11
Stat. 2041) (relating to assistance for latest and 12
zero building energy code adoption). 13
(b) R
ESCISSIONS.—The unobligated balances of any 14
amounts made available under each of sections 50122, 15
50123, and 50131 of Public Law 117–169 (42 U.S.C. 16
18795a, 18795b; 136 Stat. 2041) (as in effect on the day 17
before the date of enactment of this Act) are rescinded. 18
(c) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 19
50121(c)(7) of Public Law 117–169 (42 U.S.C. 20
18795(c)(7)) is amended by striking ‘‘, including a rebate 21
provided under a high-efficiency electric home rebate pro-22
gram (as defined in section 50122(d)),’’. 23 52
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 10018. STUDY. 1
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 2
of this Act, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with 3
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, shall conduct a study 4
on how to streamline regulatory timelines relating to de-5
veloping new power plants by examining practices relating 6
to various power generating sources, including fossil and 7
nuclear generating sources. 8
SEC. 10019. STATE PRIMARY ENFORCEMENT RESPONSI-9
BILITY. 10
(a) A
MENDMENTS.—Section 1422(b) of the Safe 11
Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h–1(b)) is amended— 12
(1) in paragraph (2)— 13
(A) by striking ‘‘Within ninety days’’ and 14
inserting ‘‘(A) Within ninety days’’; 15
(B) by striking ‘‘and after reasonable op-16
portunity for presentation of views’’; and 17
(C) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(B) If, after 270 calendar days of a State’s applica-19
tion being submitted under paragraph (1)(A) or notice 20
being submitted under paragraph (1)(B), the Adminis-21
trator has not, pursuant to subparagraph (A), by rule ap-22
proved, disapproved, or approved in part and disapproved 23
in part the State’s underground injection control pro-24
gram— 25 53
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(i) the Administrator shall transmit, in writ-1
ing, to the State a detailed explanation as to the sta-2
tus of the application or notice; and 3
‘‘(ii) the State’s underground injection control 4
program shall be deemed approved under this sec-5
tion if— 6
‘‘(I) the Administrator has not after an-7
other 30 days, pursuant to subparagraph (A), 8
by rule approved, disapproved, or approved in 9
part and disapproved in part the State’s under-10
ground injection control program; and 11
‘‘(II) the State has established and imple-12
mented an effective program (including ade-13
quate recordkeeping and reporting) to prevent 14
underground injection which endangers drink-15
ing water sources.’’; 16
(2) by amending paragraph (4) to read as fol-17
lows: 18
‘‘(4) Before promulgating any rule under paragraph 19
(2) or (3) of this subsection, the Administrator shall— 20
‘‘(A) provide a reasonable opportunity for pres-21
entation of views with respect to such rule, including 22
a public hearing and a public comment period; and 23 54
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(B) publish in the Federal Register notice of 1
the reasonable opportunity for presentation of views 2
provided under subparagraph (A).’’; and 3
(3) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(5) P
REAPPLICATIONACTIVITIES.—The Adminis-5
trator shall work as expeditiously as possible with States 6
to complete any necessary activities relevant to the sub-7
mission of an application under paragraph (1)(A) or no-8
tice under paragraph (1)(B), taking into consideration the 9
need for a complete and detailed submission. 10
‘‘(6) A
PPLICATIONCOORDINATION FOR CLASSVI 11
W
ELLS.—With respect to the underground injection con-12
trol program for Class VI wells (as defined in section 13
40306(a) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 14
(42 U.S.C. 300h–9(a))), the Administrator shall designate 15
one individual at the Agency from each regional office to 16
be responsible for coordinating— 17
‘‘(A) the completion of any necessary activities 18
prior to the submission of an application under 19
paragraph (1)(A) or notice under paragraph (1)(B), 20
in accordance with paragraph (5); 21
‘‘(B) the review of an application submitted 22
under paragraph (1)(A) or notice submitted under 23
paragraph (1)(B); 24 55
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(C) any reasonable opportunity for presen-1
tation of views provided under paragraph (4)(A) and 2
any notice published under paragraph (4)(B); and 3
‘‘(D) pursuant to the recommendations included 4
in the report required under paragraph (7), the hir-5
ing of additional staff to carry out subparagraphs 6
(A) through (C). 7
‘‘(7) E
VALUATION OFRESOURCES.— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 9
after the date of enactment of this paragraph, the 10
individual designated under paragraph (6) shall 11
transmit to the appropriate Congressional commit-12
tees a report, including recommendations, regarding 13
the— 14
‘‘(i) availability of staff and resources to 15
promptly carry out the requirements of para-16
graph (6); and 17
‘‘(ii) additional funding amounts needed to 18
do so. 19
‘‘(B) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -20
TEES DEFINED.—In this paragraph, the term ‘ap-21
propriate Congressional Committees’ means— 22
‘‘(i) in the Senate— 23
‘‘(I) the Committee on Environment 24
and Public Works; and 25 56
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(II) the Committee on Appropria-1
tions; and 2
‘‘(ii) in the House of Representatives— 3
‘‘(I) the Committee on Energy and 4
Commerce; and 5
‘‘(II) the Committee on Appropria-6
tions.’’. 7
(b) F
UNDING.—In each of fiscal years 2023 through 8
2026, amounts made available by title VI of division J 9
of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act under 10
paragraph (7) of the heading ‘‘Environmental Protection 11
Agency—State and Tribal Assistance Grants’’ (Public 12
Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 1402) may also be made available, 13
subject to appropriations, to carry out paragraphs (5), (6), 14
and (7) of section 1422(b) of the Safe Drinking Water 15
Act, as added by this section. 16
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—The amendments 17
made by this section shall— 18
(1) apply to all applications submitted to the 19
Environmental Protection Agency after the date of 20
enactment of this Act to establish an underground 21
injection control program under section 1422(b) of 22
the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h–1); 23
and 24 57
•HR 1 EH
(2) with respect to such applications submitted 1
prior to the date of enactment of this Act, the 270 2
and 300 day deadlines under section 1422(b)(2)(B) 3
of the Safe Drinking Water Act, as added by this 4
section, shall begin on the date of enactment of this 5
Act. 6
SEC. 10020. USE OF INDEX-BASED PRICING IN ACQUISITION 7
OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS FOR THE SPR. 8
Section 160(c) of the Energy Policy and Conservation 9
Act (42 U.S.C. 6240(c)) is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through 11
(6) as clauses (i) through (vi), respectively (and ad-12
justing the margins accordingly); 13
(2) by striking ‘‘The Secretary shall’’ and in-14
serting the following: 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall’’; and 16
(3) by striking ‘‘Such procedures shall take into 17
account the need to—’’ and inserting the following: 18
‘‘(2) I
NCLUSIONS.—Procedures developed under 19
this subsection shall— 20
‘‘(A) require acquisition of petroleum prod-21
ucts using index-based pricing; and 22
‘‘(B) take into account the need to—’’. 23 58
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 10021. PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN EXPORTS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Energy Policy and Conserva-2
tion Act is amended by inserting after section 163 (42 3
U.S.C. 6243) the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 164. PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN EXPORTS. 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall prohibit the 6
export or sale of petroleum products drawn down from the 7
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, under any provision of law, 8
to— 9
‘‘(1) the People’s Republic of China; 10
‘‘(2) the Democratic People’s Republic of 11
Korea; 12
‘‘(3) the Russian Federation; 13
‘‘(4) the Islamic Republic of Iran; 14
‘‘(5) any other country the government of which 15
is subject to sanctions imposed by the United States; 16
and 17
‘‘(6) any entity owned, controlled, or influenced 18
by— 19
‘‘(A) a country referred to in any of para-20
graphs (1) through (5); or 21
‘‘(B) the Chinese Communist Party. 22
‘‘(b) W
AIVER.—The Secretary may issue a waiver of 23
the prohibition described in subsection (a) if the Secretary 24
certifies that any export or sale authorized pursuant to 25 59
•HR 1 EH
the waiver is in the national security interests of the 1
United States. 2
‘‘(c) R
ULE.—Not later than 60 days after the date 3
of enactment of the Lower Energy Costs Act, the Sec-4
retary shall issue a rule to carry out this section.’’. 5
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 6
(1) D
RAWDOWN AND SALE OF PETROLEUM 7
PRODUCTS.—Section 161(a) of the Energy Policy 8
and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6241(a)) is 9
amended by inserting ‘‘and section 164’’ before the 10
period at the end. 11
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-12
tents for the Energy Policy and Conservation Act is 13
amended by inserting after the item relating to sec-14
tion 163 the following: 15
‘‘Sec. 164. Prohibition on certain exports.’’.
SEC. 10022. SENSE OF CONGRESS EXPRESSING DIS-
16
APPROVAL OF THE PROPOSED TAX HIKES ON 17
THE OIL AND NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY IN 18
THE PRESIDENT’S FISCAL YEAR 2024 BUDGET 19
REQUEST. 20
(a) F
INDING.—Congress finds that President Biden’s 21
fiscal year 2024 budget request proposes to repeal tax pro-22
visions that are vital to the oil and natural gas industry 23
of the United States, resulting in a $31,000,000,000 tax 24
hike on oil and natural gas producers in the United States. 25 60
•HR 1 EH
(b) SENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-1
gress that Congress disapproves of the proposed tax hike 2
on the oil and natural gas industry in the President’s fis-3
cal year 2024 budget request. 4
SEC. 10023. DOMESTIC ENERGY INDEPENDENCE REPORT. 5
Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment 6
of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Pro-7
tection Agency, in consultation with the Secretary of En-8
ergy, shall submit to Congress a report that identifies and 9
assesses regulations promulgated by the Administrator 10
during the 15-year period preceding the date of enactment 11
of this Act that have— 12
(1) reduced the energy independence of the 13
United States; 14
(2) increased the regulatory burden for energy 15
producers in the United States; 16
(3) decreased the energy output by such energy 17
producers; 18
(4) reduced the energy security of the United 19
States; or 20
(5) increased energy costs for consumers in the 21
United States. 22
SEC. 10024. GAO STUDY. 23
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 24
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 25 61
•HR 1 EH
shall conduct a study on how banning natural gas appli-1
ances will affect the rates and charges for electricity. 2
SEC. 10025. GAS KITCHEN RANGES AND OVENS. 3
The Secretary of Energy may not finalize, implement, 4
administer, or enforce the proposed rule titled ‘‘Energy 5
Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards 6
for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products; Supple-7
mental notice of proposed rulemaking and announcement 8
of public meeting’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 6818; published Feb-9
ruary 1, 2023) with respect to energy conservation stand-10
ards for gas kitchen ranges and ovens, or any substantially 11
similar rule, including any rule that would directly or indi-12
rectly limit consumer access to gas kitchen ranges and 13
ovens. 14
DIVISION B—TRANSPARENCY, 15
ACCOUNTABILITY, PERMIT-16
TING, AND PRODUCTION OF 17
AMERICAN RESOURCES 18
SEC. 20001. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 19
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This division may be cited as the 20
‘‘Transparency, Accountability, Permitting, and Produc-21
tion of American Resources Act’’ or the ‘‘TAPP American 22
Resources Act’’. 23
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 24
this division is as follows: 25 62
•HR 1 EH
DIVISION B—TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, PERMITTING,
AND PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN RESOURCES
Sec. 20001. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE LEASING AND OVERSIGHT
Sec. 20101. Onshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20102. Lease reinstatement.
Sec. 20103. Protested lease sales.
Sec. 20104. Suspension of operations.
Sec. 20105. Administrative protest process reform.
Sec. 20106. Leasing and permitting transparency.
Sec. 20107. Offshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20108. Five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing.
Sec. 20109. Geothermal leasing.
Sec. 20110. Leasing for certain qualified coal applications.
Sec. 20111. Future coal leasing.
Sec. 20112. Staff planning report.
Sec. 20113. Prohibition on Chinese communist party ownership interest.
Sec. 20114. Effect on other law.
Sec. 20115. Requirement for GAO report on wind energy impacts.
Sec. 20116. Sense of Congress on wind energy development supply chain.
Sec. 20117. Sense of Congress on oil and gas royalty rates.
Sec. 20118. Offshore wind environmental review process study.
Sec. 20119. GAO report on wind energy impacts.
TITLE II—PERMITTING STREAMLINING
Sec. 20201. Definitions.
Sec. 20202. BUILDER Act.
Sec. 20203. Codification of National Environmental Policy Act regulations.
Sec. 20204. Non-major Federal actions.
Sec. 20205. No net loss determination for existing rights-of-way.
Sec. 20206. Determination of National Environmental Policy Act adequacy.
Sec. 20207. Determination regarding rights-of-way.
Sec. 20208. Terms of rights-of-Way.
Sec. 20209. Funding to process permits and develop information technology.
Sec. 20210. Offshore geological and geophysical survey licensing.
Sec. 20211. Deferral of applications for permits to drill.
Sec. 20212. Processing and terms of applications for permits to drill.
Sec. 20213. Amendments to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Sec. 20214. Access to Federal energy resources from non-Federal surface es-
tate.
Sec. 20215. Scope of environmental reviews for oil and gas leases.
Sec. 20216. Expediting approval of gathering lines.
Sec. 20217. Lease sale litigation.
Sec. 20218. Limitation on claims.
Sec. 20219. Government Accountability Office report on permits to drill.
Sec. 20220. E–NEPA.
Sec. 20221. Limitations on claims.
Sec. 20222. One Federal decision for pipelines.
Sec. 20223. Exemption of certain wildfire mitigation activities from certain en-
vironmental requirements. 63
•HR 1 EH
Sec. 20224. Vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and
maintenance relating to electric transmission and distribution
facility rights of way.
Sec. 20225. Categorical exclusion for electric utility lines rights-of-way.
Sec. 20226. Staffing plans.
TITLE III—PERMITTING FOR MINING NEEDS
Sec. 20301. Definitions.
Sec. 20302. Minerals supply chain and reliability.
Sec. 20303. Federal register process improvement.
Sec. 20304. Designation of mining as a covered sector for Federal permitting
improvement purposes.
Sec. 20305. Treatment of actions under presidential determination 2022–11 for
Federal permitting improvement purposes.
Sec. 20306. Notice for mineral exploration activities with limited surface dis-
turbance.
Sec. 20307. Use of mining claims for ancillary activities.
Sec. 20308. Ensuring consideration of uranium as a critical mineral.
Sec. 20309. Barring foreign bad actors from operating on Federal lands.
Sec. 20310. Permit process for projects relating to extraction, recovery, or
processing of critical materials.
Sec. 20311. National strategy to re-shore mineral supply chains.
TITLE IV—FEDERAL LAND USE PLANNING
Sec. 20401. Federal land use planning and withdrawals.
Sec. 20402. Prohibitions on delay of mineral development of certain Federal
land.
Sec. 20403. Definitions.
TITLE V—ENSURING COMPETITIVENESS ON FEDERAL LANDS
Sec. 20501. Incentivizing domestic production.
TITLE VI—ENERGY REVENUE SHARING
Sec. 20601. Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf revenue.
Sec. 20602. Parity in offshore wind revenue sharing.
Sec. 20603. Elimination of administrative fee under the Mineral Leasing Act.
Sec. 20604. Sunset.
TITLE I—ONSHORE AND OFF-1
SHORE LEASING AND OVER-2
SIGHT 3
SEC. 20101. ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASING. 4
(a) R
EQUIREMENTTOIMMEDIATELYRESUMEON-5
SHOREOIL ANDGASLEASESALES.— 6 64
•HR 1 EH
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Inte-1
rior shall immediately resume quarterly onshore oil 2
and gas lease sales in compliance with the Mineral 3
Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.). 4
(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—The Secretary of the Inte-5
rior shall ensure— 6
(A) that any oil and gas lease sale pursu-7
ant to paragraph (1) is conducted immediately 8
on completion of all applicable scoping, public 9
comment, and environmental analysis require-10
ments under the Mineral Leasing Act (30 11
U.S.C. 181 et seq.) and the National Environ-12
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 13
seq.); and 14
(B) that the processes described in sub-15
paragraph (A) are conducted in a timely man-16
ner to ensure compliance with subsection (b)(1). 17
(3) L
EASE OF OIL AND GAS LANDS .—Section 18
17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 19
226(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘Eligible 20
lands comprise all lands subject to leasing under this 21
Act and not excluded from leasing by a statutory or 22
regulatory prohibition. Available lands are those 23
lands that have been designated as open for leasing 24
under a land use plan developed under section 202 25 65
•HR 1 EH
of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1
1976 and that have been nominated for leasing 2
through the submission of an expression of interest, 3
are subject to drainage in the absence of leasing, or 4
are otherwise designated as available pursuant to 5
regulations adopted by the Secretary.’’ after ‘‘sales 6
are necessary.’’. 7
(b) Q
UARTERLYLEASESALES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In accordance with the Min-9
eral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), each fiscal 10
year, the Secretary of the Interior shall conduct a 11
minimum of four oil and gas lease sales in each of 12
the following States: 13
(A) Wyoming. 14
(B) New Mexico. 15
(C) Colorado. 16
(D) Utah. 17
(E) Montana. 18
(F) North Dakota. 19
(G) Oklahoma. 20
(H) Nevada. 21
(I) Alaska. 22
(J) Any other State in which there is land 23
available for oil and gas leasing under the Min-24 66
•HR 1 EH
eral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) or any 1
other mineral leasing law. 2
(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—In conducting a lease sale 3
under paragraph (1) in a State described in that 4
paragraph, the Secretary of the Interior shall offer 5
all parcels nominated and eligible pursuant to the 6
requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 7
181 et seq.) for oil and gas exploration, develop-8
ment, and production under the resource manage-9
ment plan in effect for the State. 10
(3) R
EPLACEMENT SALES .—The Secretary of 11
the Interior shall conduct a replacement sale during 12
the same fiscal year if— 13
(A) a lease sale under paragraph (1) is 14
canceled, delayed, or deferred, including for a 15
lack of eligible parcels; or 16
(B) during a lease sale under paragraph 17
(1) the percentage of acreage that does not re-18
ceive a bid is equal to or greater than 25 per-19
cent of the acreage offered. 20
(4) N
OTICE REGARDING MISSED SALES .—Not 21
later than 30 days after a sale required under this 22
subsection is canceled, delayed, deferred, or other-23
wise missed the Secretary of the Interior shall sub-24
mit to the Committee on Natural Resources of the 25 67
•HR 1 EH
House of Representatives and the Committee on En-1
ergy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report 2
that states what sale was missed and why it was 3
missed. 4
SEC. 20102. LEASE REINSTATEMENT. 5
The reinstatement of a lease entered into under the 6
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) or the Geo-7
thermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) by 8
the Secretary shall be not considered a major Federal ac-9
tion under section 102(2)(C) of the National Environ-10
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)). 11
SEC. 20103. PROTESTED LEASE SALES. 12
Section 17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 13
U.S.C. 226(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘The Sec-14
retary shall resolve any protest to a lease sale not later 15
than 60 days after such payment.’’ after ‘‘annual rental 16
for the first lease year.’’. 17
SEC. 20104. SUSPENSION OF OPERATIONS. 18
Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 19
226) is amended by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(r) S
USPENSION OFOPERATIONSPERMITS.—In the 21
event that an oil and gas lease owner has submitted an 22
expression of interest for adjacent acreage that is part of 23
the nature of the geological play and has yet to be offered 24
in a lease sale by the Secretary, they may request a sus-25 68
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pension of operations from the Secretary of the Interior 1
and upon request, the Secretary shall grant the suspension 2
of operations within 15 days. Any payment of acreage 3
rental or of minimum royalty prescribed by such lease like-4
wise shall be suspended during such period of suspension 5
of operations and production; and the term of such lease 6
shall be extended by adding any such suspension period 7
thereto.’’. 8
SEC. 20105. ADMINISTRATIVE PROTEST PROCESS REFORM. 9
Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 10
226) is further amended by adding at the end the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(s) P
ROTESTFILINGFEE.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Before processing any pro-14
test filed under this section, the Secretary shall col-15
lect a filing fee in the amount described in para-16
graph (2) from the protestor to recover the cost for 17
processing documents filed for each administrative 18
protest. 19
‘‘(2) A
MOUNT.—The amount described in this 20
paragraph is calculated as follows: 21
‘‘(A) For each protest filed in a submission 22
not exceeding 10 pages in length, the base filing 23
fee shall be $150. 24 69
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(B) For each submission exceeding 10 1
pages in length, in addition to the base filing 2
fee, an assessment of $5 per page in excess of 3
10 pages shall apply. 4
‘‘(C) For protests that include more than 5
one oil and gas lease parcel, right-of-way, or ap-6
plication for permit to drill in a submission, an 7
additional assessment of $10 per additional 8
lease parcel, right-of-way, or application for 9
permit to drill shall apply. 10
‘‘(3) A
DJUSTMENT.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning on January 12
1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the Secretary 13
shall adjust the filing fees established in this 14
subsection to whole dollar amounts to reflect 15
changes in the Producer Price Index, as pub-16
lished by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for 17
the previous 12 months. 18
‘‘(B) P
UBLICATION OF ADJUSTED FILING 19
FEES.—At least 30 days before the filing fees 20
as adjusted under this paragraph take effect, 21
the Secretary shall publish notification of the 22
adjustment of such fees in the Federal Reg-23
ister.’’. 24 70
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SEC. 20106. LEASING AND PERMITTING TRANSPARENCY. 1
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than 30 days after the date 2
of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, 3
the Secretary of the Interior shall submit to the Com-4
mittee on Natural Resources of the House of Representa-5
tives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-6
sources of the Senate a report that describes— 7
(1) the status of nominated parcels for future 8
onshore oil and gas and geothermal lease sales, in-9
cluding— 10
(A) the number of expressions of interest 11
received each month during the period of 365 12
days that ends on the date on which the report 13
is submitted with respect to which the Bureau 14
of Land Management— 15
(i) has not taken any action to review; 16
(ii) has not completed review; or 17
(iii) has completed review and deter-18
mined that the relevant area meets all ap-19
plicable requirements for leasing, but has 20
not offered the relevant area in a lease 21
sale; 22
(B) how long expressions of interest de-23
scribed in subparagraph (A) have been pending; 24
and 25 71
•HR 1 EH
(C) a plan, including timelines, for how the 1
Secretary of the Interior plans to— 2
(i) work through future expressions of 3
interest to prevent delays; 4
(ii) put expressions of interest de-5
scribed in subparagraph (A) into a lease 6
sale; and 7
(iii) complete review for expressions of 8
interest described in clauses (i) and (ii) of 9
subparagraph (A); 10
(2) the status of each pending application for 11
permit to drill received during the period of 365 12
days that ends on the date on which the report is 13
submitted, including the number of applications re-14
ceived each month, by each Bureau of Land Man-15
agement office, including— 16
(A) a description of the cause of delay for 17
pending applications, including as a result of 18
staffing shortages, technical limitations, incom-19
plete applications, and incomplete review pursu-20
ant to the National Environmental Policy Act 21
of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) or other ap-22
plicable laws; 23
(B) the number of days an application has 24
been pending in violation of section 17(p)(2) of 25 72
•HR 1 EH
the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(p)(2)); 1
and 2
(C) a plan for how the office intends to 3
come into compliance with the requirements of 4
section 17(p)(2) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 5
U.S.C. 226(p)(2)); 6
(3) the number of permits to drill issued each 7
month by each Bureau of Land Management office 8
during the 5-year period ending on the date on 9
which the report is submitted; 10
(4) the status of each pending application for a 11
license for offshore geological and geophysical sur-12
veys received during the period of 365 days that 13
ends on the date on which the report is submitted, 14
including the number of applications received each 15
month, by each Bureau of Ocean Energy manage-16
ment regional office, including— 17
(A) a description of any cause of delay for 18
pending applications, including as a result of 19
staffing shortages, technical limitations, incom-20
plete applications, and incomplete review pursu-21
ant to the National Environmental Policy Act 22
of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) or other ap-23
plicable laws; 24 73
•HR 1 EH
(B) the number of days an application has 1
been pending; and 2
(C) a plan for how the Bureau of Ocean 3
Energy Management intends to complete review 4
of each application; 5
(5) the number of licenses for offshore geologi-6
cal and geophysical surveys issued each month by 7
each Bureau of Ocean Energy Management regional 8
office during the 5-year period ending on the date on 9
which the report is submitted; 10
(6) the status of each pending application for a 11
permit to drill received during the period of 365 12
days that ends on the date on which the report is 13
submitted, including the number of applications re-14
ceived each month, by each Bureau of Safety and 15
Environmental Enforcement regional office, includ-16
ing— 17
(A) a description of any cause of delay for 18
pending applications, including as a result of 19
staffing shortages, technical limitations, incom-20
plete applications, and incomplete review pursu-21
ant to the National Environmental Policy Act 22
of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) or other ap-23
plicable laws; 24 74
•HR 1 EH
(B) the number of days an application has 1
been pending; and 2
(C) steps the Bureau of Safety and Envi-3
ronmental Enforcement is taking to complete 4
review of each application; 5
(7) the number of permits to drill issued each 6
month by each Bureau of Safety and Environmental 7
Enforcement regional office during the period of 365 8
days that ends on the date on which the report is 9
submitted; 10
(8) how, as applicable, the Bureau of Land 11
Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Manage-12
ment, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental 13
Enforcement determines whether to— 14
(A) issue a license for geological and geo-15
physical surveys; 16
(B) issue a permit to drill; and 17
(C) issue, extend, or suspend an oil and 18
gas lease; 19
(9) when determinations described in paragraph 20
(8) are sent to the national office of the Bureau of 21
Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy 22
Management, or the Bureau of Safety and Environ-23
mental Enforcement for final approval; 24 75
•HR 1 EH
(10) the degree to which Bureau of Land Man-1
agement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 2
and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforce-3
ment field, State, and regional offices exercise dis-4
cretion on such final approval; 5
(11) during the period of 365 days that ends on 6
the date on which the report is submitted, the num-7
ber of auctioned leases receiving accepted bids that 8
have not been issued to winning bidders and the 9
number of days such leases have not been issued; 10
and 11
(12) a description of the uses of application for 12
permit to drill fees paid by permit holders during 13
the 5-year period ending on the date on which the 14
report is submitted. 15
(b) P
ENDINGAPPLICATIONS FOR PERMITSTO 16
D
RILL.—Not later than 30 days after the date of the en-17
actment of this section, the Secretary of the Interior 18
shall— 19
(1) complete all requirements under the Na-20
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 21
4321 et seq.) and other applicable law that must be 22
met before issuance of a permit to drill described in 23
paragraph (2); and 24 76
•HR 1 EH
(2) issue a permit for all completed applications 1
to drill that are pending on the date of the enact-2
ment of this Act. 3
(c) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFDATA.— 4
(1) M
INERAL LEASING ACT.—Section 17 of the 5
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is further 6
amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(t) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFDATA.— 8
‘‘(1) E
XPRESSIONS OF INTEREST .—Not later 9
than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this 10
subsection, and each month thereafter, the Secretary 11
shall publish on the website of the Department of 12
the Interior the number of pending, approved, and 13
not approved expressions of interest in nominated 14
parcels for future onshore oil and gas lease sales in 15
the preceding month. 16
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATIONS FOR PERMITS TO DRILL .— 17
Not later than 30 days after the date of the enact-18
ment of this subsection, and each month thereafter, 19
the Secretary shall publish on the website of the De-20
partment of the Interior the number of pending and 21
approved applications for permits to drill in the pre-22
ceding month in each State office. 23
‘‘(3) P
AST DATA.—Not later than 30 days after 24
the date of the enactment of this subsection, the 25 77
•HR 1 EH
Secretary shall publish on the website of the Depart-1
ment of the Interior, with respect to each month 2
during the 5-year period ending on the date of the 3
enactment of this subsection— 4
‘‘(A) the number of approved and not ap-5
proved expressions of interest for onshore oil 6
and gas lease sales during such 5-year period; 7
and 8
‘‘(B) the number of approved and not ap-9
proved applications for permits to drill during 10
such 5-year period.’’. 11
(2) O
UTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS ACT .— 12
Section 8 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 13
(43 U.S.C. 1337) is amended by adding at the end 14
the following: 15
‘‘(q) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFDATA.— 16
‘‘(1) O
FFSHORE GEOLOGICAL AND GEO -17
PHYSICAL SURVEY LICENSES .—Not later than 30 18
days after the date of the enactment of this sub-19
section, and each month thereafter, the Secretary 20
shall publish on the website of the Department of 21
the Interior the number of pending and approved 22
applications for licenses for offshore geological and 23
geophysical surveys in the preceding month. 24 78
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) APPLICATIONS FOR PERMITS TO DRILL .— 1
Not later than 30 days after the date of the enact-2
ment of this subsection, and each month thereafter, 3
the Secretary shall publish on the website of the De-4
partment of the Interior the number of pending and 5
approved applications for permits to drill on the 6
outer Continental Shelf in the preceding month in 7
each regional office. 8
‘‘(3) P
AST DATA.—Not later than 30 days after 9
the date of the enactment of this subsection, the 10
Secretary shall publish on the website of the Depart-11
ment of the Interior, with respect each month during 12
the 5-year period ending on the date of the enact-13
ment of this subsection— 14
‘‘(A) the number of approved applications 15
for licenses for offshore geological and geo-16
physical surveys; and 17
‘‘(B) the number of approved applications 18
for permits to drill on the outer Continental 19
Shelf.’’. 20
(d) R
EQUIREMENT TOSUBMITDOCUMENTS AND 21
C
OMMUNICATIONS.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 23
the date of the enactment of this section, the Sec-24
retary of the Interior shall submit to the Committee 25 79
•HR 1 EH
on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and 1
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House 2
of Representatives all documents and communica-3
tions relating to the comprehensive review of Federal 4
oil and gas permitting and leasing practices required 5
under section 208 of Executive Order No. 14008 (86 6
Fed. Reg. 7624; relating to tackling the climate cri-7
sis at home and abroad). 8
(2) I
NCLUSIONS.—The submission under para-9
graph (1) shall include all documents and commu-10
nications submitted to the Secretary of the Interior 11
by members of the public in response to any public 12
meeting or forum relating to the comprehensive re-13
view described in that paragraph. 14
SEC. 20107. OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASING. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct all 16
lease sales described in the 2017–2022 Outer Continental 17
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Program (No-18
vember 2016) that have not been conducted as of the date 19
of the enactment of this Act by not later than September 20
30, 2023. 21
(b) G
ULF OFMEXICOREGIONANNUALLEASE 22
S
ALES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and 23
except within areas subject to existing oil and gas leasing 24
moratoria beginning in fiscal year 2023, the Secretary of 25 80
•HR 1 EH
the Interior shall annually conduct a minimum of 2 re-1
gion-wide oil and gas lease sales in the following planning 2
areas of the Gulf of Mexico region, as described in the 3
2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing 4
Proposed Final Program (November 2016): 5
(1) The Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. 6
(2) The Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. 7
(c) A
LASKAREGIONANNUALLEASESALES.—Not-8
withstanding any other provision of law, beginning in fis-9
cal year 2023, the Secretary of the Interior shall annually 10
conduct a minimum of 2 region-wide oil and gas lease 11
sales in the Alaska region of the Outer Continental Shelf, 12
as described in the 2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf 13
Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Program (November 14
2016). 15
(d) R
EQUIREMENTS.—In conducting lease sales 16
under subsections (b) and (c), the Secretary of the Interior 17
shall— 18
(1) issue such leases in accordance with the 19
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1332 20
et seq.); and 21
(2) include in each such lease sale all unleased 22
areas that are not subject to a moratorium as of the 23
date of the lease sale. 24 81
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20108. FIVE-YEAR PLAN FOR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS 1
LEASING. 2
Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 3
(43 U.S.C. 1344) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a)— 5
(A) by striking ‘‘subsections (c) and (d) of 6
this section, shall prepare and periodically re-7
vise,’’ and inserting ‘‘this section, shall issue 8
every five years’’; 9
(B) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(5) Each five-year program shall include at 11
least two Gulf of Mexico region-wide lease sales per 12
year.’’; and 13
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘domes-14
tic energy security,’’ after ‘‘between’’; 15
(2) by redesignating subsections (f) through (i) 16
as subsections (h) through (k), respectively; and 17
(3) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(f) F
IVE-YEARPROGRAM FOR 2023–2028.—The 20
Secretary shall issue the five-year oil and gas leasing pro-21
gram for 2023 through 2028 and issue the Record of De-22
cision on the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 23
Statement by not later than July 1, 2023. 24
‘‘(g) S
UBSEQUENTLEASINGPROGRAMS.— 25 82
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 36 months 1
after conducting the first lease sale under an oil and 2
gas leasing program prepared pursuant to this sec-3
tion, the Secretary shall begin preparing the subse-4
quent oil and gas leasing program under this sec-5
tion. 6
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—Each subsequent oil and 7
gas leasing program under this section shall be ap-8
proved by not later than 180 days before the expira-9
tion of the previous oil and gas leasing program.’’. 10
SEC. 20109. GEOTHERMAL LEASING. 11
(a) A
NNUALLEASING.—Section 4(b) of the Geo-12
thermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1003(b)) is amend-13
ed— 14
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘2 years’’ and 15
inserting ‘‘year’’; 16
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as 17
paragraphs (5) and (6), respectively; and 18
(3) after paragraph (2), by inserting the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(3) R
EPLACEMENT SALES .—If a lease sale 21
under paragraph (1) for a year is canceled or de-22
layed, the Secretary of the Interior shall conduct a 23
replacement sale during the same year. 24 83
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(4) REQUIREMENT.—In conducting a lease 1
sale under paragraph (2) in a State described in 2
that paragraph, the Secretary of the Interior shall 3
offer all nominated parcels eligible for geothermal 4
development and utilization under the resource man-5
agement plan in effect for the State.’’. 6
(b) D
EADLINES FOR CONSIDERATION OF GEO-7
THERMALDRILLINGPERMITS.—Section 4 of the Geo-8
thermal Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1003) is amended 9
by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(h) D
EADLINES FOR CONSIDERATION OF GEO-11
THERMALDRILLINGPERMITS.— 12
‘‘(1) N
OTICE.—Not later than 30 days after the 13
date on which the Secretary receives an application 14
for any geothermal drilling permit, the Secretary 15
shall— 16
‘‘(A) provide written notice to the appli-17
cant that the application is complete; or 18
‘‘(B) notify the applicant that information 19
is missing and specify any information that is 20
required to be submitted for the application to 21
be complete. 22
‘‘(2) I
SSUANCE OF DECISION.—If the Secretary 23
determines that an application for a geothermal 24
drilling permit is complete under paragraph (1)(A), 25 84
•HR 1 EH
the Secretary shall issue a final decision on the ap-1
plication not later than 30 days after the Secretary 2
notifies the applicant that the application is com-3
plete.’’. 4
SEC. 20110. LEASING FOR CERTAIN QUALIFIED COAL AP-5
PLICATIONS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) C
OAL LEASE.—The term ‘‘coal lease’’ 8
means a lease entered into by the United States as 9
lessor, through the Bureau of Land Management, 10
and the applicant on Bureau of Land Management 11
Form 3400–012. 12
(2) Q
UALIFIED APPLICATION .—The term 13
‘‘qualified application’’ means any application pend-14
ing under the lease by application program adminis-15
tered by the Bureau of Land Management pursuant 16
to the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) 17
and subpart 3425 of title 43, Code of Federal Regu-18
lations (as in effect on the date of the enactment of 19
this Act), for which the environmental review proc-20
ess under the National Environmental Policy Act of 21
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) has commenced. 22
(b) M
ANDATORYLEASING ANDOTHERREQUIRED 23
A
PPROVALS.—As soon as practicable after the date of the 24
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promptly— 25 85
•HR 1 EH
(1) with respect to each qualified application— 1
(A) if not previously published for public 2
comment, publish a draft environmental assess-3
ment, as required under the National Environ-4
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 5
seq.) and any applicable implementing regula-6
tions; 7
(B) finalize the fair market value of the 8
coal tract for which a lease by application is 9
pending; 10
(C) take all intermediate actions necessary 11
to grant the qualified application; and 12
(D) grant the qualified application; and 13
(2) with respect to previously awarded coal 14
leases, grant any additional approvals of the Depart-15
ment of the Interior or any bureau, agency, or divi-16
sion of the Department of the Interior required for 17
mining activities to commence. 18
SEC. 20111. FUTURE COAL LEASING. 19
Notwithstanding any judicial decision to the contrary 20
or a departmental review of the Federal coal leasing pro-21
gram, Secretarial Order 3338, issued by the Secretary of 22
the Interior on January 15, 2016, shall have no force or 23
effect. 24 86
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20112. STAFF PLANNING REPORT. 1
The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 2
Agriculture shall each annually submit to the Committee 3
on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and 4
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the 5
Senate a report on the staffing capacity of each respective 6
agency with respect to issuing oil, gas, hardrock mining, 7
coal, and renewable energy leases, rights-of-way, claims, 8
easements, and permits. Each such report shall include— 9
(1) the number of staff assigned to process and 10
issue oil, gas, hardrock mining, coal, and renewable 11
energy leases, rights-of-way, claims, easements, and 12
permits; 13
(2) a description of how many staff are needed 14
to meet statutory requirements for such oil, gas, 15
hardrock mining, coal, and renewable energy leases, 16
rights-of-way, claims, easements, and permits; and 17
(3) how, as applicable, the Department of the 18
Interior or the Department of Agriculture plans to 19
address technological needs and staffing shortfalls 20
and turnover to ensure adequate staffing to process 21
and issue such oil, gas, hardrock mining, coal, and 22
renewable energy leases, rights-of-way, claims, ease-23
ments, and permits. 24 87
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20113. PROHIBITION ON CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 1
OWNERSHIP INTEREST. 2
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Com-3
munist Party of China (or a person acting on behalf of 4
the Community Party of China), any entity subject to the 5
jurisdiction of the Government of the People’s Republic 6
of China, or any entity that is owned by the Government 7
of the People’s Republic of China, may not acquire any 8
interest with respect to lands leased for oil or gas under 9
the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) or the 10
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et 11
seq.) or American farmland or any lands used for Amer-12
ican renewable energy production, or acquire claims sub-13
ject to the General Mining Law of 1872. 14
SEC. 20114. EFFECT ON OTHER LAW. 15
Nothing in this division, or any amendments made 16
by this division, shall affect— 17
(1) the Presidential memorandum titled 18
‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas of 19
the United States Outer Continental Shelf From 20
Leasing Disposition’’ and dated September 8, 2020; 21
(2) the Presidential memorandum titled 22
‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas of 23
the United States Outer Continental Shelf From 24
Leasing Disposition’’ and dated September 25, 25
2020; 26 88
•HR 1 EH
(3) the Presidential memorandum titled 1
‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas off 2
the Atlantic Coast on the Outer Continental Shelf 3
From Leasing Disposition’’ and dated December 20, 4
2016; or 5
(4) the ban on oil and gas development in the 6
Great Lakes described in section 386 of the Energy 7
Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15941). 8
SEC. 20115. REQUIREMENT FOR GAO REPORT ON WIND EN-9
ERGY IMPACTS. 10
The Secretary of the Interior shall not publish a no-11
tice for a wind lease sale or hold a lease sale for wind 12
energy development in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico Plan-13
ning Area, the South Atlantic Planning Area, or the 14
Straits of Florida Planning Area (as described in the 15
2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing 16
Proposed Final Program (November 2016)) until the 17
Comptroller General of the United States publishes a re-18
port on all potential adverse effects of wind energy devel-19
opment in such areas, including associated infrastructure 20
and vessel traffic, on— 21
(1) military readiness and training activities in 22
the Planning Areas described in this section, includ-23
ing activities within or related to the Eglin Test and 24 89
•HR 1 EH
Training Complex and the Jacksonville Range Com-1
plex; 2
(2) marine environment and ecology, including 3
species listed as endangered or threatened under the 4
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 5
seq.) or designated as depleted under the Marine 6
Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et 7
seq.) in the Planning Areas described in this section; 8
and 9
(3) tourism, including the economic impacts 10
that a decrease in tourism may have on the commu-11
nities adjacent to the Planning Areas described in 12
this section. 13
SEC. 20116. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON WIND ENERGY DEVEL-14
OPMENT SUPPLY CHAIN. 15
It is the sense of Congress that— 16
(1) wind energy development on Federal lands 17
and waters is a burgeoning industry in the United 18
States; 19
(2) major components of wind infrastructure, 20
including turbines, are imported in large quantities 21
from other countries including countries that are na-22
tional security threats, such as the Government of 23
the People’s Republic of China; 24 90
•HR 1 EH
(3) it is in the best interest of the United 1
States to foster and support domestic supply chains 2
across sectors to promote American energy inde-3
pendence; 4
(4) the economic and manufacturing opportuni-5
ties presented by wind turbine construction and 6
component manufacturing should be met by Amer-7
ican workers and materials that are sourced domes-8
tically to the greatest extent practicable; and 9
(5) infrastructure for wind energy development 10
in the United States should be constructed with ma-11
terials produced and manufactured in the United 12
States. 13
SEC. 20117. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON OIL AND GAS ROY-14
ALTY RATES. 15
It is the sense of Congress that the royalty rate for 16
onshore Federal oil and gas leases should be not more 17
than 12.5 percent in amount or value of the production 18
removed or sold from the lease. 19
SEC. 20118. OFFSHORE WIND ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 20
PROCESS STUDY. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 22
date of the enactment of this section, the Comptroller 23
General shall conduct a study to assess the sufficiency of 24
the environmental review processes for offshore wind 25 91
•HR 1 EH
projects in place as of the date of the enactment of this 1
section of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Bu-2
reau of Ocean Energy Management, and any other rel-3
evant Federal agency. 4
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The study required under sub-5
section (a) shall include consideration of the following: 6
(1) The impacts of offshore wind projects on— 7
(A) whales, finfish, and other marine 8
mammals; 9
(B) benthic resources; 10
(C) commercial and recreational fishing; 11
(D) air quality; 12
(E) cultural, historical, and archaeological 13
resources; 14
(F) invertebrates; 15
(G) essential fish habitat; 16
(H) military use and navigation and vessel 17
traffic; 18
(I) recreation and tourism; and 19
(J) the sustainability of shoreline beaches 20
and inlets. 21
(2) The impacts of hurricanes and other severe 22
weather on offshore wind projects. 23
(3) How the agencies described in subsection 24
(a) determine which stakeholders are consulted and 25 92
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if a timely, comprehensive comment period is pro-1
vided for local representatives and other interested 2
parties. 3
(4) The estimated cost and who pays for off-4
shore wind projects. 5
SEC. 20119. GAO REPORT ON WIND ENERGY IMPACTS. 6
The Comptroller General of the United States shall 7
publish a report on all potential adverse effects of wind 8
energy development in the North Atlantic Planning Area 9
(as described in the 2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf 10
Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Program (November 11
2016)), including associated infrastructure and vessel 12
traffic, on— 13
(1) maritime safety, including the operation of 14
radar systems; 15
(2) economic impacts related to commercial 16
fishing activities; and 17
(3) marine environment and ecology, including 18
species listed as endangered or threatened under the 19
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 20
seq.) or designated as depleted under the Marine 21
Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et 22
seq.) in the North Atlantic Planning Area. 23 93
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TITLE II—PERMITTING 1
STREAMLINING 2
SEC. 20201. DEFINITIONS. 3
In this title: 4
(1) E
NERGY FACILITY.—The term ‘‘energy fa-5
cility’’ means a facility the primary purpose of which 6
is the exploration for, or the development, produc-7
tion, conversion, gathering, storage, transfer, proc-8
essing, or transportation of, any energy resource. 9
(2) E
NERGY STORAGE DEVICE .—The term ‘‘en-10
ergy storage device’’— 11
(A) means any equipment that stores en-12
ergy, including electricity, compressed air, 13
pumped water, heat, and hydrogen, which may 14
be converted into, or used to produce, elec-15
tricity; and 16
(B) includes a battery, regenerative fuel 17
cell, flywheel, capacitor, superconducting mag-18
net, and any other equipment the Secretary 19
concerned determines may be used to store en-20
ergy which may be converted into, or used to 21
produce, electricity. 22
(3) P
UBLIC LANDS.—The term ‘‘public lands’’ 23
means any land and interest in land owned by the 24
United States within the several States and adminis-25 94
•HR 1 EH
tered by the Secretary of the Interior or the Sec-1
retary of Agriculture without regard to how the 2
United States acquired ownership, except— 3
(A) lands located on the Outer Continental 4
Shelf; and 5
(B) lands held in trust by the United 6
States for the benefit of Indians, Indian Tribes, 7
Aleuts, and Eskimos. 8
(4) R
IGHT-OF-WAY.—The term ‘‘right-of-way’’ 9
means— 10
(A) a right-of-way issued, granted, or re-11
newed under section 501 of the Federal Land 12
Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 13
1761); or 14
(B) a right-of-way granted under section 15
28 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 185). 16
(5) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-17
retary concerned’’ means— 18
(A) with respect to public lands, the Sec-19
retary of the Interior; and 20
(B) with respect to National Forest Sys-21
tem lands, the Secretary of Agriculture. 22
(6) L
AND USE PLAN .—The term ‘‘land use 23
plan’’ means— 24 95
•HR 1 EH
(A) a land and resource management plan 1
prepared by the Forest Service for a unit of the 2
National Forest System pursuant to section 6 3
of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-4
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 5
1604); 6
(B) a Land Management Plan developed 7
by the Bureau of Land Management under the 8
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 9
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 10
(C) a comprehensive conservation plan de-11
veloped by the United States Fish and Wildlife 12
Service under section 4(e)(1)(A) of the National 13
Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 14
1966 (16 U.S.C. 668dd(e)(1)(A)). 15
SEC. 20202. BUILDER ACT. 16
(a) P
ARAGRAPH(2) OFSECTION102.—Section 17
102(2) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 18
(42 U.S.C. 4332(2)) is amended— 19
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘insure’’ 20
and inserting ‘‘ensure’’; 21
(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘insure’’ 22
and inserting ‘‘ensure’’; 23
(3) in subparagraph (C)— 24 96
•HR 1 EH
(A) by inserting ‘‘consistent with the provi-1
sions of this Act and except as provided by 2
other provisions of law,’’ before ‘‘include in 3
every’’; 4
(B) by striking clauses (i) through (v) and 5
inserting the following: 6
‘‘(i) reasonably foreseeable environmental 7
effects with a reasonably close causal relation-8
ship to the proposed agency action; 9
‘‘(ii) any reasonably foreseeable adverse en-10
vironmental effects which cannot be avoided 11
should the proposal be implemented; 12
‘‘(iii) a reasonable number of alternatives 13
to the proposed agency action, including an 14
analysis of any negative environmental impacts 15
of not implementing the proposed agency action 16
in the case of a no action alternative, that are 17
technically and economically feasible, are within 18
the jurisdiction of the agency, meet the purpose 19
and need of the proposal, and, where applicable, 20
meet the goals of the applicant; 21
‘‘(iv) the relationship between local short- 22
term uses of man’s environment and the main-23
tenance and enhancement of long-term produc-24
tivity; and 25 97
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(v) any irreversible and irretrievable com-1
mitments of Federal resources which would be 2
involved in the proposed agency action should it 3
be implemented.’’; and 4
(C) by striking ‘‘the responsible Federal 5
official’’ and inserting ‘‘the head of the lead 6
agency’’; 7
(4) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘Any’’ 8
and inserting ‘‘any’’; 9
(5) by redesignating subparagraphs (D) 10
through (I) as subparagraphs (F) through (K), re-11
spectively; 12
(6) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(D) ensure the professional integrity, including 15
scientific integrity, of the discussion and analysis in 16
an environmental document; 17
‘‘(E) make use of reliable existing data and re-18
sources in carrying out this Act;’’; 19
(7) by amending subparagraph (G), as redesig-20
nated, to read as follows: 21
‘‘(G) consistent with the provisions of this Act, 22
study, develop, and describe technically and economi-23
cally feasible alternatives within the jurisdiction and 24
authority of the agency;’’; and 25 98
•HR 1 EH
(8) in subparagraph (H), as amended, by in-1
serting ‘‘consistent with the provisions of this Act,’’ 2
before ‘‘recognize’’. 3
(b) N
EWSECTIONS.—Title I of the National Envi-4
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 5
is amended by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘SEC. 106. PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINATION OF LEVEL OF 7
REVIEW. 8
‘‘(a) T
HRESHOLDDETERMINATIONS.—An agency is 9
not required to prepare an environmental document with 10
respect to a proposed agency action if— 11
‘‘(1) the proposed agency action is not a final 12
agency action within the meaning of such term in 13
chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code; 14
‘‘(2) the proposed agency action is covered by 15
a categorical exclusion established by the agency, an-16
other Federal agency, or another provision of law; 17
‘‘(3) the preparation of such document would 18
clearly and fundamentally conflict with the require-19
ments of another provision of law; 20
‘‘(4) the proposed agency action is, in whole or 21
in part, a nondiscretionary action with respect to 22
which such agency does not have authority to take 23
environmental factors into consideration in deter-24
mining whether to take the proposed action; 25 99
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(5) the proposed agency action is a rulemaking 1
that is subject to section 553 of title 5, United 2
States Code; or 3
‘‘(6) the proposed agency action is an action for 4
which such agency’s compliance with another stat-5
ute’s requirements serve the same or similar func-6
tion as the requirements of this Act with respect to 7
such action. 8
‘‘(b) L
EVELS OFREVIEW.— 9
‘‘(1) E
NVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT .— 10
An agency shall issue an environmental impact 11
statement with respect to a proposed agency action 12
that has a significant effect on the quality of the 13
human environment. 14
‘‘(2) E
NVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT .—An agen-15
cy shall prepare an environmental assessment with 16
respect to a proposed agency action that is not likely 17
to have a significant effect on the quality of the 18
human environment, or if the significance of such ef-19
fect is unknown, unless the agency finds that a cat-20
egorical exclusion established by the agency, another 21
Federal agency, or another provision of law applies. 22
Such environmental assessment shall be a concise 23
public document prepared by a Federal agency to set 24 100
•HR 1 EH
forth the basis of such agency’s finding of no signifi-1
cant impact. 2
‘‘(3) S
OURCES OF INFORMATION .—In making a 3
determination under this subsection, an agency— 4
‘‘(A) may make use of any reliable data 5
source; and 6
‘‘(B) is not required to undertake new sci-7
entific or technical research. 8
‘‘SEC. 107. TIMELY AND UNIFIED FEDERAL REVIEWS. 9
‘‘(a) L
EADAGENCY.— 10
‘‘(1) D
ESIGNATION.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If there are two or 12
more involved Federal agencies, such agencies 13
shall determine, by letter or memorandum, 14
which agency shall be the lead agency based on 15
consideration of the following factors: 16
‘‘(i) Magnitude of agency’s involve-17
ment. 18
‘‘(ii) Project approval or disapproval 19
authority. 20
‘‘(iii) Expertise concerning the ac-21
tion’s environmental effects. 22
‘‘(iv) Duration of agency’s involve-23
ment. 24 101
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‘‘(v) Sequence of agency’s involve-1
ment. 2
‘‘(B) J
OINT LEAD AGENCIES .—In making 3
a determination under subparagraph (A), the 4
involved Federal agencies may, in addition to a 5
Federal agency, appoint such Federal, State, 6
Tribal, or local agencies as joint lead agencies 7
as the involved Federal agencies shall determine 8
appropriate. Joint lead agencies shall jointly 9
fulfill the role described in paragraph (2). 10
‘‘(C) M
INERAL PROJECTS .—This para-11
graph shall not apply with respect to a mineral 12
exploration or mine permit. 13
‘‘(2) R
OLE.—A lead agency shall, with respect 14
to a proposed agency action— 15
‘‘(A) supervise the preparation of an envi-16
ronmental document if, with respect to such 17
proposed agency action, there is more than one 18
involved Federal agency; 19
‘‘(B) request the participation of each co-20
operating agency at the earliest practicable 21
time; 22
‘‘(C) in preparing an environmental docu-23
ment, give consideration to any analysis or pro-24
posal created by a cooperating agency with ju-25 102
•HR 1 EH
risdiction by law or a cooperating agency with 1
special expertise; 2
‘‘(D) develop a schedule, in consultation 3
with each involved cooperating agency, the ap-4
plicant, and such other entities as the lead 5
agency determines appropriate, for completion 6
of any environmental review, permit, or author-7
ization required to carry out the proposed agen-8
cy action; 9
‘‘(E) if the lead agency determines that a 10
review, permit, or authorization will not be com-11
pleted in accordance with the schedule devel-12
oped under subparagraph (D), notify the agen-13
cy responsible for issuing such review, permit, 14
or authorization of the discrepancy and request 15
that such agency take such measures as such 16
agency determines appropriate to comply with 17
such schedule; and 18
‘‘(F) meet with a cooperating agency that 19
requests such a meeting. 20
‘‘(3) C
OOPERATING AGENCY .—The lead agency 21
may, with respect to a proposed agency action, des-22
ignate any involved Federal agency or a State, Trib-23
al, or local agency as a cooperating agency. A co-24
operating agency may, not later than a date speci-25 103
•HR 1 EH
fied by the lead agency, submit comments to the 1
lead agency. Such comments shall be limited to mat-2
ters relating to the proposed agency action with re-3
spect to which such agency has special expertise or 4
jurisdiction by law with respect to an environmental 5
issue. 6
‘‘(4) R
EQUEST FOR DESIGNATION .—Any Fed-7
eral, State, Tribal, or local agency or person that is 8
substantially affected by the lack of a designation of 9
a lead agency with respect to a proposed agency ac-10
tion under paragraph (1) may submit a written re-11
quest for such a designation to an involved Federal 12
agency. An agency that receives a request under this 13
paragraph shall transmit such request to each in-14
volved Federal agency and to the Council. 15
‘‘(5) C
OUNCIL DESIGNATION.— 16
‘‘(A) R
EQUEST.—Not earlier than 45 days 17
after the date on which a request is submitted 18
under paragraph (4), if no designation has been 19
made under paragraph (1), a Federal, State, 20
Tribal, or local agency or person that is sub-21
stantially affected by the lack of a designation 22
of a lead agency may request that the Council 23
designate a lead agency. Such request shall con-24
sist of— 25 104
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(i) a precise description of the nature 1
and extent of the proposed agency action; 2
and 3
‘‘(ii) a detailed statement with respect 4
to each involved Federal agency and each 5
factor listed in paragraph (1) regarding 6
which agency should serve as lead agency. 7
‘‘(B) T
RANSMISSION.—The Council shall 8
transmit a request received under subparagraph 9
(A) to each involved Federal agency. 10
‘‘(C) R
ESPONSE.—An involved Federal 11
agency may, not later than 20 days after the 12
date of the submission of a request under sub-13
paragraph (A), submit to the Council a re-14
sponse to such request. 15
‘‘(D) D
ESIGNATION.—Not later than 40 16
days after the date of the submission of a re-17
quest under subparagraph (A), the Council 18
shall designate the lead agency with respect to 19
the relevant proposed agency action. 20
‘‘(b) O
NEDOCUMENT.— 21
‘‘(1) D
OCUMENT.—To the extent practicable, if 22
there are 2 or more involved Federal agencies with 23
respect to a proposed agency action and the lead 24
agency has determined that an environmental docu-25 105
•HR 1 EH
ment is required, such requirement shall be deemed 1
satisfied with respect to all involved Federal agencies 2
if the lead agency issues such an environmental doc-3
ument. 4
‘‘(2) C
ONSIDERATION TIMING .—In developing 5
an environmental document for a proposed agency 6
action, no involved Federal agency shall be required 7
to consider any information that becomes available 8
after the sooner of, as applicable— 9
‘‘(A) receipt of a complete application with 10
respect to such proposed agency action; or 11
‘‘(B) publication of a notice of intent or 12
decision to prepare an environmental impact 13
statement for such proposed agency action. 14
‘‘(3) S
COPE OF REVIEW.—In developing an en-15
vironmental document for a proposed agency action, 16
the lead agency and any other involved Federal 17
agencies shall only consider the effects of the pro-18
posed agency action that— 19
‘‘(A) occur on Federal land; or 20
‘‘(B) are subject to Federal control and re-21
sponsibility. 22
‘‘(c) R
EQUEST FORPUBLICCOMMENT.—Each notice 23
of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement 24
under section 102 shall include a request for public com-25 106
•HR 1 EH
ment on alternatives or impacts and on relevant informa-1
tion, studies, or analyses with respect to the proposed 2
agency action. 3
‘‘(d) S
TATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND NEED.—Each 4
environmental impact statement shall include a statement 5
of purpose and need that briefly summarizes the under-6
lying purpose and need for the proposed agency action. 7
‘‘(e) E
STIMATEDTOTALCOST.—The cover sheet for 8
each environmental impact statement shall include a state-9
ment of the estimated total cost of preparing such environ-10
mental impact statement, including the costs of agency 11
full-time equivalent personnel hours, contractor costs, and 12
other direct costs. 13
‘‘(f) P
AGELIMITS.— 14
‘‘(1) E
NVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS .— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 16
subparagraph (B), an environmental impact 17
statement shall not exceed 150 pages, not in-18
cluding any citations or appendices. 19
‘‘(B) E
XTRAORDINARY COMPLEXITY .—An 20
environmental impact statement for a proposed 21
agency action of extraordinary complexity shall 22
not exceed 300 pages, not including any cita-23
tions or appendices. 24 107
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS .—An en-1
vironmental assessment shall not exceed 75 pages, 2
not including any citations or appendices. 3
‘‘(g) S
PONSORPREPARATION.—A lead agency shall 4
allow a project sponsor to prepare an environmental as-5
sessment or an environmental impact statement upon re-6
quest of the project sponsor. Such agency may provide 7
such sponsor with appropriate guidance and assist in the 8
preparation. The lead agency shall independently evaluate 9
the environmental document and shall take responsibility 10
for the contents upon adoption. 11
‘‘(h) D
EADLINES.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-13
graph (2), with respect to a proposed agency action, 14
a lead agency shall complete, as applicable— 15
‘‘(A) the environmental impact statement 16
not later than the date that is 2 years after the 17
sooner of, as applicable— 18
‘‘(i) the date on which such agency 19
determines that section 102(2)(C) requires 20
the issuance of an environmental impact 21
statement with respect to such action; 22
‘‘(ii) the date on which such agency 23
notifies the applicant that the application 24 108
•HR 1 EH
to establish a right-of-way for such action 1
is complete; and 2
‘‘(iii) the date on which such agency 3
issues a notice of intent to prepare the en-4
vironmental impact statement for such ac-5
tion; and 6
‘‘(B) the environmental assessment not 7
later than the date that is 1 year after the 8
sooner of, as applicable— 9
‘‘(i) the date on which such agency 10
determines that section 106(b)(2) requires 11
the preparation of an environmental as-12
sessment with respect to such action; 13
‘‘(ii) the date on which such agency 14
notifies the applicant that the application 15
to establish a right-of-way for such action 16
is complete; and 17
‘‘(iii) the date on which such agency 18
issues a notice of intent to prepare the en-19
vironmental assessment for such action. 20
‘‘(2) D
ELAY.—A lead agency that determines it 21
is not able to meet the deadline described in para-22
graph (1) may extend such deadline with the ap-23
proval of the applicant. If the applicant approves 24
such an extension, the lead agency shall establish a 25 109
•HR 1 EH
new deadline that provides only so much additional 1
time as is necessary to complete such environmental 2
impact statement or environmental assessment. 3
‘‘(3) E
XPENDITURES FOR DELAY .—If a lead 4
agency is unable to meet the deadline described in 5
paragraph (1) or extended under paragraph (2), the 6
lead agency must pay $100 per day, to the extent 7
funding is provided in advance in an appropriations 8
Act, out of the office of the head of the department 9
of the lead agency to the applicant starting on the 10
first day immediately following the deadline de-11
scribed in paragraph (1) or extended under para-12
graph (2) up until the date that an applicant ap-13
proves a new deadline. This paragraph does not 14
apply when the lead agency misses a deadline solely 15
due to delays caused by litigation. 16
‘‘(i) R
EPORT.— 17
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The head of each lead 18
agency shall annually submit to the Committee on 19
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives 20
and the Committee on Environment and Public 21
Works of the Senate a report that— 22
‘‘(A) identifies any environmental assess-23
ment and environmental impact statement that 24 110
•HR 1 EH
such lead agency did not complete by the dead-1
line described in subsection (h); and 2
‘‘(B) provides an explanation for any fail-3
ure to meet such deadline. 4
‘‘(2) I
NCLUSIONS.—Each report submitted 5
under paragraph (1) shall identify, as applicable— 6
‘‘(A) the office, bureau, division, unit, or 7
other entity within the Federal agency respon-8
sible for each such environmental assessment 9
and environmental impact statement; 10
‘‘(B) the date on which— 11
‘‘(i) such lead agency notified the ap-12
plicant that the application to establish a 13
right-of-way for the major Federal action 14
is complete; 15
‘‘(ii) such lead agency began the 16
scoping for the major Federal action; or 17
‘‘(iii) such lead agency issued a notice 18
of intent to prepare the environmental as-19
sessment or environmental impact state-20
ment for the major Federal action; and 21
‘‘(C) when such environmental assessment 22
and environmental impact statement is expected 23
to be complete. 24 111
•HR 1 EH
‘‘SEC. 108. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 1
‘‘(a) L
IMITATIONS ON CLAIMS.—Notwithstanding 2
any other provision of law, a claim arising under Federal 3
law seeking judicial review of compliance with this Act, 4
of a determination made under this Act, or of Federal ac-5
tion resulting from a determination made under this Act, 6
shall be barred unless— 7
‘‘(1) in the case of a claim pertaining to a pro-8
posed agency action for which— 9
‘‘(A) an environmental document was pre-10
pared and an opportunity for comment was pro-11
vided; 12
‘‘(B) the claim is filed by a party that par-13
ticipated in the administrative proceedings re-14
garding such environmental document; and 15
‘‘(C) the claim— 16
‘‘(i) is filed by a party that submitted 17
a comment during the public comment pe-18
riod for such administrative proceedings 19
and such comment was sufficiently detailed 20
to put the lead agency on notice of the 21
issue upon which the party seeks judicial 22
review; and 23
‘‘(ii) is related to such comment; 24
‘‘(2) except as provided in subsection (b), such 25
claim is filed not later than 120 days after the date 26 112
•HR 1 EH
of publication of a notice in the Federal Register of 1
agency intent to carry out the proposed agency ac-2
tion; 3
‘‘(3) such claim is filed after the issuance of a 4
record of decision or other final agency action with 5
respect to the relevant proposed agency action; 6
‘‘(4) such claim does not challenge the estab-7
lishment or use of a categorical exclusion under sec-8
tion 102; and 9
‘‘(5) such claim concerns— 10
‘‘(A) an alternative included in the envi-11
ronmental document; or 12
‘‘(B) an environmental effect considered in 13
the environmental document. 14
‘‘(b) S
UPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 15
S
TATEMENT.— 16
‘‘(1) S
EPARATE FINAL AGENCY ACTION .—The 17
issuance of a Federal action resulting from a final 18
supplemental environmental impact statement shall 19
be considered a final agency action for the purposes 20
of chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code, separate 21
from the issuance of any previous environmental im-22
pact statement with respect to the same proposed 23
agency action. 24 113
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) DEADLINE FOR FILING A CLAIM .—A claim 1
seeking judicial review of a Federal action resulting 2
from a final supplemental environmental review 3
issued under section 102(2)(C) shall be barred un-4
less— 5
‘‘(A) such claim is filed within 120 days of 6
the date on which a notice of the Federal agen-7
cy action resulting from a final supplemental 8
environmental impact statement is issued; and 9
‘‘(B) such claim is based on information 10
contained in such supplemental environmental 11
impact statement that was not contained in a 12
previous environmental document pertaining to 13
the same proposed agency action. 14
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ON INJUNCTIVERELIEF.—Not-15
withstanding any other provision of law, a violation of this 16
Act shall not constitute the basis for injunctive relief. 17
‘‘(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-18
tion shall be construed to create a right of judicial review 19
or place any limit on filing a claim with respect to the 20
violation of the terms of a permit, license, or approval. 21
‘‘(e) R
EMAND.—Notwithstanding any other provision 22
of law, no proposed agency action for which an environ-23
mental document is required shall be vacated or otherwise 24
limited, delayed, or enjoined unless a court concludes al-25 114
•HR 1 EH
lowing such proposed action will pose a risk of an immi-1
nent and substantial environmental harm and there is no 2
other equitable remedy available as a matter of law. 3
‘‘SEC. 109. DEFINITIONS. 4
‘‘In this title: 5
‘‘(1) C
ATEGORICAL EXCLUSION .—The term 6
‘categorical exclusion’ means a category of actions 7
that a Federal agency has determined normally does 8
not significantly affect the quality of the human en-9
vironment within the meaning of section 102(2)(C). 10
‘‘(2) C
OOPERATING AGENCY .—The term ‘co-11
operating agency’ means any Federal, State, Tribal, 12
or local agency that has been designated as a co-13
operating agency under section 107(a)(3). 14
‘‘(3) C
OUNCIL.—The term ‘Council’ means the 15
Council on Environmental Quality established in 16
title II. 17
‘‘(4) E
NVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT .—The 18
term ‘environmental assessment’ means an environ-19
mental assessment prepared under section 20
106(b)(2). 21
‘‘(5) E
NVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT .—The term 22
‘environmental document’ means an environmental 23
impact statement, an environmental assessment, or 24
a finding of no significant impact. 25 115
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(6) ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT .— 1
The term ‘environmental impact statement’ means a 2
detailed written statement that is required by section 3
102(2)(C). 4
‘‘(7) F
INDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT .— 5
The term ‘finding of no significant impact’ means a 6
determination by a Federal agency that a proposed 7
agency action does not require the issuance of an en-8
vironmental impact statement. 9
‘‘(8) I
NVOLVED FEDERAL AGENCY .—The term 10
‘involved Federal agency’ means an agency that, 11
with respect to a proposed agency action— 12
‘‘(A) proposed such action; or 13
‘‘(B) is involved in such action because 14
such action is directly related, through func-15
tional interdependence or geographic proximity, 16
to an action such agency has taken or has pro-17
posed to take. 18
‘‘(9) L
EAD AGENCY.— 19
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 20
subparagraph (B), the term ‘lead agency’ 21
means, with respect to a proposed agency ac-22
tion— 23
‘‘(i) the agency that proposed such ac-24
tion; or 25 116
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(ii) if there are 2 or more involved 1
Federal agencies with respect to such ac-2
tion, the agency designated under section 3
107(a)(1). 4
‘‘(B) S
PECIFICATION FOR MINERAL EX -5
PLORATION OR MINE PERMITS .—With respect 6
to a proposed mineral exploration or mine per-7
mit, the term ‘lead agency’ has the meaning 8
given such term in section 40206(a) of the In-9
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 10
‘‘(10) M
AJOR FEDERAL ACTION .— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘major Fed-12
eral action’ means an action that the agency 13
carrying out such action determines is subject 14
to substantial Federal control and responsi-15
bility. 16
‘‘(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘major Fed-17
eral action’ does not include— 18
‘‘(i) a non-Federal action— 19
‘‘(I) with no or minimal Federal 20
funding; 21
‘‘(II) with no or minimal Federal 22
involvement where a Federal agency 23
cannot control the outcome of the 24
project; or 25 117
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‘‘(III) that does not include Fed-1
eral land; 2
‘‘(ii) funding assistance solely in the 3
form of general revenue sharing funds 4
which do not provide Federal agency com-5
pliance or enforcement responsibility over 6
the subsequent use of such funds; 7
‘‘(iii) loans, loan guarantees, or other 8
forms of financial assistance where a Fed-9
eral agency does not exercise sufficient 10
control and responsibility over the effect of 11
the action; 12
‘‘(iv) farm ownership and operating 13
loan guarantees by the Farm Service 14
Agency pursuant to sections 305 and 311 15
through 319 of the Consolidated Farmers 16
Home Administration Act of 1961 (7 17
U.S.C. 1925 and 1941 through 1949); 18
‘‘(v) business loan guarantees pro-19
vided by the Small Business Administra-20
tion pursuant to section 7(a) or (b) and of 21
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 22
636(a)), or title V of the Small Business 23
Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 695 et 24
seq.); 25 118
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(vi) bringing judicial or administra-1
tive civil or criminal enforcement actions; 2
or 3
‘‘(vii) extraterritorial activities or deci-4
sions, which means agency activities or de-5
cisions with effects located entirely outside 6
of the jurisdiction of the United States. 7
‘‘(C) A
DDITIONAL EXCLUSIONS .—An agen-8
cy action may not be determined to be a major 9
Federal action on the basis of— 10
‘‘(i) an interstate effect of the action 11
or related project; or 12
‘‘(ii) the provision of Federal funds 13
for the action or related project. 14
‘‘(11) M
INERAL EXPLORATION OR MINE PER -15
MIT.—The term ‘mineral exploration or mine permit’ 16
has the meaning given such term in section 17
40206(a) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 18
Act. 19
‘‘(12) P
ROPOSAL.—The term ‘proposal’ means 20
a proposed action at a stage when an agency has a 21
goal, is actively preparing to make a decision on one 22
or more alternative means of accomplishing that 23
goal, and can meaningfully evaluate its effects. 24 119
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(13) REASONABLY FORESEEABLE .—The term 1
‘reasonably foreseeable’ means likely to occur— 2
‘‘(A) not later than 10 years after the lead 3
agency begins preparing the environmental doc-4
ument; and 5
‘‘(B) in an area directly affected by the 6
proposed agency action such that an individual 7
of ordinary prudence would take such occur-8
rence into account in reaching a decision. 9
‘‘(14) S
PECIAL EXPERTISE.—The term ‘special 10
expertise’ means statutory responsibility, agency 11
mission, or related program experience.’’. 12
SEC. 20203. CODIFICATION OF NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL 13
POLICY ACT REGULATIONS. 14
The revisions to the Code of Federal Regulations 15
made pursuant to the final rule of the Council on Environ-16
mental Quality titled ‘‘Update to the Regulations Imple-17
menting the Procedural Provisions of the National Envi-18
ronmental Policy Act’’ and published on July 16, 2020 19
(85 Fed. Reg. 43304), shall have the same force and effect 20
of law as if enacted by an Act of Congress. 21
SEC. 20204. NON-MAJOR FEDERAL ACTIONS. 22
(a) E
XEMPTION.—An action by the Secretary con-23
cerned with respect to a covered activity shall be not con-24
sidered a major Federal action under section 102(2)(C) 25 120
•HR 1 EH
of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 1
U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)). 2
(b) C
OVEREDACTIVITY.—In this section, the term 3
‘‘covered activity’’ includes— 4
(1) geotechnical investigations; 5
(2) off-road travel in an existing right-of-way; 6
(3) construction of meteorological towers where 7
the total surface disturbance at the location is less 8
than 5 acres; 9
(4) adding a battery or other energy storage de-10
vice to an existing or planned energy facility, if that 11
storage resource is located within the physical foot-12
print of the existing or planned energy facility; 13
(5) drilling temperature gradient wells and 14
other geothermal exploratory wells, including con-15
struction or making improvements for such activi-16
ties, where— 17
(A) the last cemented casing string is less 18
than 12 inches in diameter; and 19
(B) the total unreclaimed surface disturb-20
ance at any one time within the project area is 21
less than 5 acres; 22
(6) any repair, maintenance, upgrade, optimiza-23
tion, or minor addition to existing transmission and 24
distribution infrastructure, including— 25 121
•HR 1 EH
(A) operation, maintenance, or repair of 1
power equipment and structures within existing 2
substations, switching stations, transmission, 3
and distribution lines; 4
(B) the addition, modification, retirement, 5
or replacement of breakers, transmission tow-6
ers, transformers, bushings, or relays; 7
(C) the voltage uprating, modification, 8
reconductoring with conventional or advanced 9
conductors, and clearance resolution of trans-10
mission lines; 11
(D) activities to minimize fire risk, includ-12
ing vegetation management, routine fire mitiga-13
tion, inspection, and maintenance activities, and 14
removal of hazard trees and other hazard vege-15
tation within or adjacent to an existing right-of- 16
way; 17
(E) improvements to or construction of 18
structure pads for such infrastructure; and 19
(F) access and access route maintenance 20
and repairs associated with any activity de-21
scribed in subparagraph (A) through (E); 22
(7) approval of and activities conducted in ac-23
cordance with operating plans or agreements for 24
transmission and distribution facilities or under a 25 122
•HR 1 EH
special use authorization for an electric transmission 1
and distribution facility right-of-way; and 2
(8) construction, maintenance, realignment, or 3
repair of an existing permanent or temporary access 4
road— 5
(A) within an existing right-of-way or with-6
in a transmission or utility corridor established 7
by Congress or in a land use plan; 8
(B) that serves an existing transmission 9
line, distribution line, or energy facility; or 10
(C) activities conducted in accordance with 11
existing onshore oil and gas leases. 12
SEC. 20205. NO NET LOSS DETERMINATION FOR EXISTING 13
RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Upon a determination by the Sec-15
retary concerned that there will be no overall long-term 16
net loss of vegetation, soil, or habitat, as defined by acre-17
age and function, resulting from a proposed action, deci-18
sion, or activity within an existing right-of-way, within a 19
right-of-way corridor established in a land use plan, or in 20
an otherwise designated right-of-way, that action, deci-21
sion, or activity shall not be considered a major Federal 22
action under section 102(2)(C) of the National Environ-23
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)). 24 123
•HR 1 EH
(b) INCLUSION OFREMEDIATION.—In making a de-1
termination under subsection (a), the Secretary concerned 2
shall consider the effect of any remediation work to be 3
conducted during the lifetime of the action, decision, or 4
activity when determining whether there will be any over-5
all long-term net loss of vegetation, soil, or habitat. 6
SEC. 20206. DETERMINATION OF NATIONAL ENVIRON-7
MENTAL POLICY ACT ADEQUACY. 8
The Secretary concerned shall use previously com-9
pleted environmental assessments and environmental im-10
pact statements to satisfy the requirements of section 102 11
of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 12
U.S.C. 4332) with respect to any major Federal action, 13
if such Secretary determines that— 14
(1) the new proposed action is substantially the 15
same as a previously analyzed proposed action or al-16
ternative analyzed in a previous environmental as-17
sessment or environmental impact statement; and 18
(2) the effects of the proposed action are sub-19
stantially the same as the effects analyzed in such 20
existing environmental assessments or environmental 21
impact statements. 22
SEC. 20207. DETERMINATION REGARDING RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 23
Not later than 60 days after the Secretary concerned 24
receives an application to grant a right-of-way, the Sec-25 124
•HR 1 EH
retary concerned shall notify the applicant as to whether 1
the application is complete or deficient. If the Secretary 2
concerned determines the application is complete, the Sec-3
retary concerned may not consider any other application 4
to grant a right-of-way on the same or any overlapping 5
parcels of land while such application is pending. 6
SEC. 20208. TERMS OF RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 7
(a) F
IFTYYEARTERMS FORRIGHTS-OF-WAY.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any right-of-way for pipe-9
lines for the transportation or distribution of oil or 10
gas granted, issued, amended, or renewed under 11
Federal law may be limited to a term of not more 12
than 50 years before such right-of-way is subject to 13
renewal or amendment. 14
(2) F
EDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 15
ACT OF 1976.—Section 501 of the Federal Land Pol-16
icy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1761) 17
is amended by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(e) Any right-of-way granted, issued, amended, or 19
renewed under subsection (a)(4) may be limited to a term 20
of not more than 50 years before such right-of-way is sub-21
ject to renewal or amendment.’’. 22
(b) M
INERALLEASINGACT.—Section 28(n) of the 23
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 185(n)) is amended by 24
striking ‘‘thirty’’ and inserting ‘‘50’’. 25 125
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20209. FUNDING TO PROCESS PERMITS AND DEVELOP 1
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—In fiscal years 2023 through 3
2025, the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the 4
Forest Service) and the Secretary of the Interior, after 5
public notice, may accept and expend funds contributed 6
by non-Federal entities for dedicated staff, information re-7
source management, and information technology system 8
development to expedite the evaluation of permits, biologi-9
cal opinions, concurrence letters, environmental surveys 10
and studies, processing of applications, consultations, and 11
other activities for the leasing, development, or expansion 12
of an energy facility under the jurisdiction of the respec-13
tive Secretaries. 14
(b) E
FFECT ONPERMITTING.—In carrying out this 15
section, the Secretary of the Interior shall ensure that the 16
use of funds accepted under subsection (a) will not impact 17
impartial decision making with respect to permits, either 18
substantively or procedurally. 19
(c) S
TATEMENT FOR FAILURETOACCEPT OREX-20
PENDFUNDS.—Not later than 60 days after the end of 21
the applicable fiscal year, if the Secretary of Agriculture 22
(acting through the Forest Service) or the Secretary of 23
the Interior does not accept funds contributed under sub-24
section (a) or accepts but does not expend such funds, that 25
Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Natural Re-26 126
•HR 1 EH
sources of the House of Representatives and the Com-1
mittee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate 2
a statement explaining why such funds were not accepted, 3
were not expended, or both, as the case may be. 4
(d) P
ROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provi-5
sion of law, the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through 6
the Forest Service) and the Secretary of the Interior may 7
not accept contributions, as authorized by subsection (a), 8
from non-Federal entities owned by the Communist Party 9
of China (or a person or entity acting on behalf of the 10
Communist Party of China). 11
(e) R
EPORT ONNON-FEDERALENTITIES.—Not later 12
than 60 days after the end of the applicable fiscal year, 13
the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Forest 14
Service) and the Secretary of the Interior shall submit to 15
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Rep-16
resentatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural 17
Resources of the Senate a report that includes, for each 18
expenditure authorized by subsection (a)— 19
(1) the amount of funds accepted; and 20
(2) the contributing non-Federal entity. 21
SEC. 20210. OFFSHORE GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL 22
SURVEY LICENSING. 23
The Secretary of the Interior shall authorize geologi-24
cal and geophysical surveys related to oil and gas activities 25 127
•HR 1 EH
on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, except 1
within areas subject to existing oil and gas leasing mora-2
toria. Such authorizations shall be issued within 30 days 3
of receipt of a completed application and shall, as applica-4
ble to survey type, comply with the mitigation and moni-5
toring measures in subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (f), and 6
(g) of section 217.184 of title 50, Code of Federal Regula-7
tions (as in effect on January 1, 2022), and section 8
217.185 of title 50, Code of Federal Regulations (as in 9
effect on January 1, 2022). Geological and geophysical 10
surveys authorized pursuant to this section are deemed to 11
be in full compliance with the Marine Mammal Protection 12
Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) and the Endangered 13
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and their 14
implementing regulations. 15
SEC. 20211. DEFERRAL OF APPLICATIONS FOR PERMITS TO 16
DRILL. 17
Section 17(p)(3) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 18
U.S.C. 226(p)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the 19
following: 20
‘‘(D) D
EFERRAL BASED ON FORMATTING 21
ISSUES.—A decision on an application for a 22
permit to drill may not be deferred under para-23
graph (2)(B) as a result of a formatting issue 24 128
•HR 1 EH
with the permit, unless such formatting issue 1
results in missing information.’’. 2
SEC. 20212. PROCESSING AND TERMS OF APPLICATIONS 3
FOR PERMITS TO DRILL. 4
(a) E
FFECT OFPENDINGCIVILACTIONS.—Section 5
17(p) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(p)) is 6
amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(4) E
FFECT OF PENDING CIVIL ACTION ON 8
PROCESSING APPLICATIONS FOR PERMITS TO 9
DRILL.—Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 10
(2), notwithstanding the existence of any pending 11
civil actions affecting the application or related 12
lease, the Secretary shall process an application for 13
a permit to drill or other authorizations or approvals 14
under a valid existing lease, unless a United States 15
Federal court vacated such lease. Nothing in this 16
paragraph shall be construed as providing authority 17
to a Federal court to vacate a lease.’’. 18
(b) T
ERM OFPERMITTODRILL.—Section 17 of the 19
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is further amended 20
by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(u) T
ERM OFPERMITTODRILL.—A permit to drill 22
issued under this section after the date of the enactment 23
of this subsection shall be valid for one four-year term 24
from the date that the permit is approved, or until the 25 129
•HR 1 EH
lease regarding which the permit is issued expires, which-1
ever occurs first.’’. 2
SEC. 20213. AMENDMENTS TO THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 3
2005. 4
Section 390 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 5
U.S.C. 15942) is amended to read as follows: 6
‘‘SEC. 390. NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT RE-7
VIEW. 8
‘‘(a) N
ATIONALENVIRONMENTAL POLICYACTRE-9
VIEW.—Action by the Secretary of the Interior, in man-10
aging the public lands, or the Secretary of Agriculture, 11
in managing National Forest System lands, with respect 12
to any of the activities described in subsection (c), shall 13
not be considered a major Federal action for the purposes 14
of section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy 15
Act of 1969, if the activity is conducted pursuant to the 16
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) for the pur-17
pose of exploration or development of oil or gas. 18
‘‘(b) A
PPLICATION.—This section shall not apply to 19
an action of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary 20
of Agriculture on Indian lands or resources managed in 21
trust for the benefit of Indian Tribes. 22
‘‘(c) A
CTIVITIESDESCRIBED.—The activities re-23
ferred to in subsection (a) are as follows: 24 130
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(1) Reinstating a lease pursuant to section 31 1
of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 188). 2
‘‘(2) The following activities, provided that any 3
new surface disturbance is contiguous with the foot-4
print of the original authorization and does not ex-5
ceed 20 acres or the acreage has previously been 6
evaluated in a document previously prepared under 7
section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 8
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)) with re-9
spect to such activity: 10
‘‘(A) Drilling an oil or gas well at a well 11
pad site at which drilling has occurred pre-12
viously. 13
‘‘(B) Expansion of an existing oil or gas 14
well pad site to accommodate an additional well. 15
‘‘(C) Expansion or modification of an ex-16
isting oil or gas well pad site, road, pipeline, fa-17
cility, or utility submitted in a sundry notice. 18
‘‘(3) Drilling of an oil or gas well at a new well 19
pad site, provided that the new surface disturbance 20
does not exceed 20 acres and the acreage evaluated 21
in a document previously prepared under section 22
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act 23
of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)) with respect to such 24
activity, whichever is greater. 25 131
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(4) Construction or realignment of a road, 1
pipeline, or utility within an existing right-of-way or 2
within a right-of-way corridor established in a land 3
use plan. 4
‘‘(5) The following activities when conducted 5
from non-Federal surface into federally owned min-6
erals, provided that the operator submits to the Sec-7
retary concerned certification of a surface use agree-8
ment with the non-Federal landowner: 9
‘‘(A) Drilling an oil or gas well at a well 10
pad site at which drilling has occurred pre-11
viously. 12
‘‘(B) Expansion of an existing oil or gas 13
well pad site to accommodate an additional well. 14
‘‘(C) Expansion or modification of an ex-15
isting oil or gas well pad site, road, pipeline, fa-16
cility, or utility submitted in a sundry notice. 17
‘‘(6) Drilling of an oil or gas well from non- 18
Federal surface and non-Federal subsurface into 19
Federal mineral estate. 20
‘‘(7) Construction of up to 1 mile of new road 21
on Federal or non-Federal surface, not to exceed 2 22
miles in total. 23 132
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(8) Construction of up to 3 miles of individual 1
pipelines or utilities, regardless of surface owner-2
ship.’’. 3
SEC. 20214. ACCESS TO FEDERAL ENERGY RESOURCES 4
FROM NON-FEDERAL SURFACE ESTATE. 5
(a) O
IL ANDGASPERMITS.—Section 17 of the Min-6
eral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is further amended by 7
adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(v) N
OFEDERALPERMITREQUIRED FOROIL AND 9
G
ASACTIVITIES ONCERTAINLAND.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall not re-11
quire an operator to obtain a Federal drilling permit 12
for oil and gas exploration and production activities 13
conducted on non-Federal surface estate, provided 14
that— 15
‘‘(A) the United States holds an ownership 16
interest of less than 50 percent of the sub-17
surface mineral estate to be accessed by the 18
proposed action; and 19
‘‘(B) the operator submits to the Secretary 20
a State permit to conduct oil and gas explo-21
ration and production activities on the non-Fed-22
eral surface estate. 23 133
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) NO FEDERAL ACTION.—An oil and gas ex-1
ploration and production activity carried out under 2
paragraph (1)— 3
‘‘(A) shall not be considered a major Fed-4
eral action for the purposes of section 5
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy 6
Act of 1969; 7
‘‘(B) shall require no additional Federal 8
action; 9
‘‘(C) may commence 30 days after submis-10
sion of the State permit to the Secretary; and 11
‘‘(D) shall not be subject to— 12
‘‘(i) section 306108 of title 54, United 13
States Code (commonly known as the Na-14
tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966); 15
and 16
‘‘(ii) section 7 of the Endangered Spe-17
cies Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536). 18
‘‘(3) R
OYALTIES AND PRODUCTION ACCOUNT -19
ABILITY.—(A) Nothing in this subsection shall affect 20
the amount of royalties due to the United States 21
under this Act from the production of oil and gas, 22
or alter the Secretary’s authority to conduct audits 23
and collect civil penalties pursuant to the Federal 24 134
•HR 1 EH
Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 1
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.). 2
‘‘(B) The Secretary may conduct onsite reviews 3
and inspections to ensure proper accountability, 4
measurement, and reporting of production of Fed-5
eral oil and gas, and payment of royalties. 6
‘‘(4) E
XCEPTIONS.—This subsection shall not 7
apply to actions on Indian lands or resources man-8
aged in trust for the benefit of Indian Tribes. 9
‘‘(5) I
NDIAN LAND.—In this subsection, the 10
term ‘Indian land’ means— 11
‘‘(A) any land located within the bound-12
aries of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or 13
rancheria; and 14
‘‘(B) any land not located within the 15
boundaries of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or 16
rancheria, the title to which is held— 17
‘‘(i) in trust by the United States for 18
the benefit of an Indian tribe or an indi-19
vidual Indian; 20
‘‘(ii) by an Indian tribe or an indi-21
vidual Indian, subject to restriction against 22
alienation under laws of the United States; 23
or 24 135
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(iii) by a dependent Indian commu-1
nity.’’. 2
(b) G
EOTHERMAL PERMITS.—The Geothermal 3
Steam Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) is amended 4
by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 30. NO FEDERAL PERMIT REQUIRED FOR GEO-6
THERMAL ACTIVITIES ON CERTAIN LAND. 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall not require 8
an operator to obtain a Federal drilling permit for geo-9
thermal exploration and production activities conducted on 10
a non-Federal surface estate, provided that— 11
‘‘(1) the United States holds an ownership in-12
terest of less than 50 percent of the subsurface geo-13
thermal estate to be accessed by the proposed action; 14
and 15
‘‘(2) the operator submits to the Secretary a 16
State permit to conduct geothermal exploration and 17
production activities on the non-Federal surface es-18
tate. 19
‘‘(b) N
OFEDERALACTION.—A geothermal explo-20
ration and production activity carried out under para-21
graph (1)— 22
‘‘(1) shall not be considered a major Federal 23
action for the purposes of section 102(2)(C) of the 24
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969; 25 136
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) shall require no additional Federal action; 1
‘‘(3) may commence 30 days after submission 2
of the State permit to the Secretary; and 3
‘‘(4) shall not be subject to— 4
‘‘(A) section 306108 of title 54, United 5
States Code (commonly known as the National 6
Historic Preservation Act of 1966); and 7
‘‘(B) section 7 of the Endangered Species 8
Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536). 9
‘‘(c) R
OYALTIES AND PRODUCTION ACCOUNT-10
ABILITY.—(1) Nothing in this section shall affect the 11
amount of royalties due to the United States under this 12
Act from the production of electricity using geothermal re-13
sources (other than direct use of geothermal resources) or 14
the production of any byproducts. 15
‘‘(2) The Secretary may conduct onsite reviews and 16
inspections to ensure proper accountability, measurement, 17
and reporting of the production described in paragraph 18
(1), and payment of royalties. 19
‘‘(d) E
XCEPTIONS.—This section shall not apply to 20
actions on Indian lands or resources managed in trust for 21
the benefit of Indian Tribes. 22
‘‘(e) I
NDIANLAND.—In this section, the term ‘Indian 23
land’ means— 24 137
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(1) any land located within the boundaries of 1
an Indian reservation, pueblo, or rancheria; and 2
‘‘(2) any land not located within the boundaries 3
of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or rancheria, the 4
title to which is held— 5
‘‘(A) in trust by the United States for the 6
benefit of an Indian tribe or an individual In-7
dian; 8
‘‘(B) by an Indian tribe or an individual 9
Indian, subject to restriction against alienation 10
under laws of the United States; or 11
‘‘(C) by a dependent Indian community.’’. 12
SEC. 20215. SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS FOR OIL 13
AND GAS LEASES. 14
An environmental review for an oil and gas lease or 15
permit prepared pursuant to the requirements of the Na-16
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 17
et seq.) and its implementing regulations— 18
(1) shall apply only to areas that are within or 19
immediately adjacent to the lease plot or plots and 20
that are directly affected by the proposed action; 21
and 22
(2) shall not require consideration of down-23
stream, indirect effects of oil and gas consumption. 24 138
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20216. EXPEDITING APPROVAL OF GATHERING LINES. 1
Section 11318(b)(1) of the Infrastructure Investment 2
and Jobs Act (42 U.S.C. 15943(b)(1)) is amended by 3
striking ‘‘to be an action that is categorically excluded (as 4
defined in section 1508.1 of title 40, Code of Federal Reg-5
ulations (as in effect on the date of enactment of this 6
Act))’’ and inserting ‘‘to not be a major Federal action’’. 7
SEC. 20217. LEASE SALE LITIGATION. 8
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any oil 9
and gas lease sale held under section 17 of the Mineral 10
Leasing Act (26 U.S.C. 226) or the Outer Continental 11
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) shall not be 12
vacated and activities on leases awarded in the sale shall 13
not be otherwise limited, delayed, or enjoined unless the 14
court concludes allowing development of the challenged 15
lease will pose a risk of an imminent and substantial envi-16
ronmental harm and there is no other equitable remedy 17
available as a matter of law. No court, in response to an 18
action brought pursuant to the National Environmental 19
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. et seq.), may enjoin or issue 20
any order preventing the award of leases to a bidder in 21
a lease sale conducted pursuant to section 17 of the Min-22
eral Leasing Act (26 U.S.C. 226) or the Outer Continental 23
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) if the Depart-24
ment of the Interior has previously opened bids for such 25 139
•HR 1 EH
leases or disclosed the high bidder for any tract that was 1
included in such lease sale. 2
SEC. 20218. LIMITATION ON CLAIMS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-4
sion of law, a claim arising under Federal law seeking ju-5
dicial review of a permit, license, or approval issued by 6
a Federal agency for a mineral project, energy facility, or 7
energy storage device shall be barred unless— 8
(1) the claim is filed within 120 days after pub-9
lication of a notice in the Federal Register announc-10
ing that the permit, license, or approval is final pur-11
suant to the law under which the agency action is 12
taken, unless a shorter time is specified in the Fed-13
eral law pursuant to which judicial review is allowed; 14
and 15
(2) the claim is filed by a party that submitted 16
a comment during the public comment period for 17
such permit, license, or approval and such comment 18
was sufficiently detailed to put the agency on notice 19
of the issue upon which the party seeks judicial re-20
view. 21
(b) S
AVINGSCLAUSE.—Nothing in this section shall 22
create a right to judicial review or place any limit on filing 23
a claim that a person has violated the terms of a permit, 24
license, or approval. 25 140
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(c) TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS.—Subsection (a) 1
shall not apply to or supersede a claim subject to section 2
139(l)(1) of title 23, United States Code. 3
(d) M
INERALPROJECT.—In this section, the term 4
‘‘mineral project’’ means a project— 5
(1) located on— 6
(A) a mining claim, millsite claim, or tun-7
nel site claim for any mineral; 8
(B) lands open to mineral entry; or 9
(C) a Federal mineral lease; and 10
(2) for the purposes of exploring for or pro-11
ducing minerals. 12
SEC. 20219. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE RE-13
PORT ON PERMITS TO DRILL. 14
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 15
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 16
United States shall issue a report detailing— 17
(1) the approval timelines for applications for 18
permits to drill issued by the Bureau of Land Man-19
agement from 2018 through 2022; 20
(2) the number of applications for permits to 21
drill that were not issued within 30 days of receipt 22
of a completed application; and 23
(3) the causes of delays resulting in applica-24
tions for permits to drill pending beyond the 30 day 25 141
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deadline required under section 17(p)(2) of the Min-1
eral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(p)(2)). 2
(b) R
ECOMMENDATIONS .—The report issued under 3
subsection (a) shall include recommendations with respect 4
to— 5
(1) actions the Bureau of Land Management 6
can take to streamline the approval process for ap-7
plications for permits to drill to approve applications 8
for permits to drill within 30 days of receipt of a 9
completed application; 10
(2) aspects of the Federal permitting process 11
carried out by the Bureau of Land Management to 12
issue applications for permits to drill that can be 13
turned over to States to expedite approval of appli-14
cations for permits to drill; and 15
(3) legislative actions that Congress must take 16
to allow States to administer certain aspects of the 17
Federal permitting process described in paragraph 18
(2). 19
SEC. 20220. E–NEPA. 20
(a) P
ERMITTINGPORTALSTUDY.—The Council on 21
Environmental Quality shall conduct a study and submit 22
a report to Congress within 1 year of the enactment of 23
this Act on the potential to create an online permitting 24
portal for permits that require review under section 25 142
•HR 1 EH
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)) that would— 2
(1) allow applicants to— 3
(A) submit required documents or mate-4
rials for their application in one unified portal; 5
(B) upload additional documents as re-6
quired by the applicable agency; and 7
(C) track the progress of individual appli-8
cations; 9
(2) enhance interagency coordination in con-10
sultation by— 11
(A) allowing for comments in one unified 12
portal; 13
(B) centralizing data necessary for reviews; 14
and 15
(C) streamlining communications between 16
other agencies and the applicant; and 17
(3) boost transparency in agency decision-18
making. 19
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 20
authorized to be appropriated $500,000 for the Council 21
of Environmental Quality to carry out the study directed 22
by this section. 23 143
•HR 1 EH
SEC. 20221. LIMITATIONS ON CLAIMS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 139(l) of title 23, United 2
States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘150 days’’ each 3
place it appears and inserting ‘‘90 days’’. 4
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 5
(1) Section 330(e) of title 23, United States 6
Code, is amended— 7
(A) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ‘‘150 8
days’’ and inserting ‘‘90 days’’; and 9
(B) in paragraph (3)(B)(i), by striking 10
‘‘150 days’’ and inserting ‘‘90 days’’. 11
(2) Section 24201(a)(4) of title 49, United 12
States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘of 150 days’’. 13
SEC. 20222. ONE FEDERAL DECISION FOR PIPELINES. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 601 of title 49, United 15
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘§ 60144. Efficient environmental reviews and one 18
Federal decision 19
‘‘(a) E
FFICIENTENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Transpor-21
tation shall apply the project development proce-22
dures, to the greatest extent feasible, described in 23
section 139 of title 23 to any pipeline project that 24
requires the approval of the Secretary under the Na-25 144
•HR 1 EH
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 1
4321 et seq.). 2
‘‘(2) R
EGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES .—In car-3
rying out paragraph (1), the Secretary shall incor-4
porate into agency regulations and procedures per-5
taining to pipeline projects described in paragraph 6
(1) aspects of such project development procedures, 7
or portions thereof, determined appropriate by the 8
Secretary in a manner consistent with this section, 9
that increase the efficiency of the review of pipeline 10
projects. 11
‘‘(3) D
ISCRETION.—The Secretary may choose 12
not to incorporate into agency regulations and proce-13
dures pertaining to pipeline projects described in 14
paragraph (1) such project development procedures 15
that could only feasibly apply to highway projects, 16
public transportation capital projects, and 17
multimodal projects. 18
‘‘(4) A
PPLICABILITY.—Subsection (l) of section 19
139 of title 23 shall apply to pipeline projects de-20
scribed in paragraph (1). 21
‘‘(b) A
DDITIONALCATEGORICALEXCLUSIONS.—The 22
Secretary shall maintain and make publicly available, in-23
cluding on the Internet, a database that identifies project- 24 145
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specific information on the use of a categorical exclusion 1
on any pipeline project carried out under this title.’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-3
ter 601 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by 4
adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘60144. Efficient environmental reviews and one Federal decision.’’.
SEC. 20223. EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN WILDFIRE MITIGA-
6
TION ACTIVITIES FROM CERTAIN ENVIRON-7
MENTAL REQUIREMENTS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Wildfire mitigation activities of 9
the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agri-10
culture may be carried out without regard to the provi-11
sions of law specified in subsection (b). 12
(b) P
ROVISIONS OFLAWSPECIFIED.—The provisions 13
of law specified in this section are all Federal, State, or 14
other laws, regulations, and legal requirements of, deriving 15
from, or related to the subject of, the following laws: 16
(1) Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environ-17
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)). 18
(2) The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 19
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 20
(c) W
ILDFIREMITIGATIONACTIVITY.—For purposes 21
of this section, the term ‘‘wildfire mitigation activity’’— 22
(1) is an activity conducted on Federal land 23
that is— 24 146
•HR 1 EH
(A) under the administration of the Direc-1
tor of the National Park System, the Director 2
of the Bureau of Land Management, or the 3
Chief of the Forest Service; and 4
(B) within 300 feet of any permanent or 5
temporary road, as measured from the center of 6
such road; and 7
(2) includes forest thinning, hazardous fuel re-8
duction, prescribed burning, and vegetation manage-9
ment. 10
SEC. 20224. VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FACILITY INSPEC-11
TION, AND OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE 12
RELATING TO ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION AND 13
DISTRIBUTION FACILITY RIGHTS OF WAY. 14
(a) H
AZARDTREESWITHIN50 FEET OFELECTRIC 15
P
OWERLINE.—Section 512(a)(1)(B)(ii) of the Federal 16
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 17
1772(a)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ‘‘10’’ and in-18
serting ‘‘50’’. 19
(b) C
ONSULTATIONWITHPRIVATELANDOWNERS.— 20
Section 512(c)(3)(E) of the Federal Land Policy and 21
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(3)(E)) is 22
amended— 23
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 24 147
•HR 1 EH
(2) in clause (ii), by striking the period and in-1
serting ‘‘; and’’; and 2
(3) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(iii) consulting with private land-4
owners with respect to any hazard trees 5
identified for removal from land owned by 6
such private landowners.’’. 7
(c) R
EVIEW ANDAPPROVALPROCESS.—Clause (iv) 8
of section 512(c)(4)(A) of the Federal Land Policy and 9
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(4)(A)) is 10
amended to read as follows: 11
‘‘(iv) ensures that— 12
‘‘(I) a plan submitted without a 13
modification under clause (iii) shall be 14
automatically approved 60 days after 15
review; and 16
‘‘(II) a plan submitted with a 17
modification under clause (iii) shall be 18
automatically approved 67 days after 19
review.’’. 20
SEC. 20225. CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION FOR ELECTRIC UTIL-21
ITY LINES RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 22
(a) S
ECRETARYCONCERNEDDEFINED.—In this sec-23
tion, the term ‘‘Secretary concerned’’ means— 24 148
•HR 1 EH
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to 1
National Forest System lands; and 2
(2) the Secretary of the Interior, with respect 3
to public lands. 4
(b) C
ATEGORICALEXCLUSIONESTABLISHED.—For-5
est management activities described in subsection (c) are 6
a category of activities designated as being categorically 7
excluded from the preparation of an environmental assess-8
ment or an environmental impact statement under section 9
102 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 10
U.S.C. 4332). 11
(c) F
ORESTMANAGEMENTACTIVITIESDESIGNATED 12
FORCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.—The forest management 13
activities designated as being categorically excluded under 14
subsection (b) are— 15
(1) the development and approval of a vegeta-16
tion management, facility inspection, and operation 17
and maintenance plan submitted under section 18
512(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-19
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(1)) by the 20
Secretary concerned; and 21
(2) the implementation of routine activities con-22
ducted under the plan referred to in paragraph (1). 23
(d) A
VAILABILITY OFCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.— 24
On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 25 149
•HR 1 EH
Secretary concerned may use the categorical exclusion es-1
tablished under subsection (b) in accordance with this sec-2
tion. 3
(e) E
XTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES.—Use of the 4
categorical exclusion established under subsection (b) shall 5
not be subject to the extraordinary circumstances proce-6
dures in section 220.6, title 36, Code of Federal Regula-7
tions, or section 1508.4, title 40, Code of Federal Regula-8
tions. 9
(f) E
XCLUSION OFCERTAINAREAS.—The categor-10
ical exclusion established under subsection (b) shall not 11
apply to any forest management activity conducted— 12
(1) in a component of the National Wilderness 13
Preservation System; or 14
(2) on National Forest System lands on which, 15
by Act of Congress, the removal of vegetation is re-16
stricted or prohibited. 17
(g) P
ERMANENTROADS.— 18
(1) P
ROHIBITION ON ESTABLISHMENT .—A for-19
est management activity designated under subsection 20
(c) shall not include the establishment of a perma-21
nent road. 22
(2) E
XISTING ROADS.—The Secretary con-23
cerned may carry out necessary maintenance and re-24
pair on an existing permanent road for the purposes 25 150
•HR 1 EH
of conducting a forest management activity des-1
ignated under subsection (c). 2
(3) T
EMPORARY ROADS .—The Secretary con-3
cerned shall decommission any temporary road con-4
structed for a forest management activity designated 5
under subsection (c) not later than 3 years after the 6
date on which the action is completed. 7
(h) A
PPLICABLELAWS.—A forest management activ-8
ity designated under subsection (c) shall not be subject 9
to section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 10
U.S.C. 1536), section 106 of the National Historic Preser-11
vation Act, or any other applicable law. 12
SEC. 20226. STAFFING PLANS. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 365 days after the 14
date of enactment of this Act, each local unit of the Na-15
tional Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and 16
Forest Service shall conduct an outreach plan for dissemi-17
nating and advertising open civil service positions with 18
functions relating to permitting or natural resources in 19
their offices. Each such plan shall include outreach to local 20
high schools, community colleges, institutions of higher 21
education, and any other relevant institutions, as deter-22
mined by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary 23
of Agriculture (as the case may be). 24 151
•HR 1 EH
(b) COLLABORATIONPERMITTED.—Such local units 1
of the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Manage-2
ment, and Forest Service located in reasonably close geo-3
graphic areas may collaborate to produce a joint outreach 4
plan that meets the requirements of subsection (a). 5
TITLE III—PERMITTING FOR 6
MINING NEEDS 7
SEC. 20301. DEFINITIONS. 8
In this title: 9
(1) B
YPRODUCT.—The term ‘‘byproduct’’ has 10
the meaning given such term in section 7002(a) of 11
the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)). 12
(2) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 13
has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the 14
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 15
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 16
(3) M
INERAL.—The term ‘‘mineral’’ means any 17
mineral of a kind that is locatable (including, but 18
not limited to, such minerals located on ‘‘lands ac-19
quired by the United States’’, as such term is de-20
fined in section 2 of the Mineral Leasing Act for Ac-21
quired Lands) under the Act of May 10, 1872 22
(Chapter 152; 17 Stat. 91). 23 152
•HR 1 EH
(4) SECRETARY.—Except as otherwise provided, 1
the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of the In-2
terior. 3
(5) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 4
(A) a State; 5
(B) the District of Columbia; 6
(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 7
(D) Guam; 8
(E) American Samoa; 9
(F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 10
Mariana Islands; and 11
(G) the United States Virgin Islands. 12
SEC. 20302. MINERALS SUPPLY CHAIN AND RELIABILITY. 13
Section 40206 of the Infrastructure Investment and 14
Jobs Act (30 U.S.C. 1607) is amended— 15
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘
CRIT-16
ICAL MINERALS ’’ and inserting ‘‘MINERALS’’; 17
(2) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol-18
lows: 19
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 20
‘‘(1) L
EAD AGENCY.—The term ‘lead agency’ 21
means the Federal agency with primary responsi-22
bility for issuing a mineral exploration or mine per-23
mit or lease for a mineral project. 24 153
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) MINERAL.—The term ‘mineral’ has the 1
meaning given such term in section 20301 of the 2
TAPP American Resources Act. 3
‘‘(3) M
INERAL EXPLORATION OR MINE PER -4
MIT.—The term ‘mineral exploration or mine permit’ 5
means— 6
‘‘(A) an authorization of the Bureau of 7
Land Management or the Forest Service, as ap-8
plicable, for exploration for minerals that re-9
quires analysis under the National Environ-10
mental Policy Act of 1969; 11
‘‘(B) a plan of operations for a mineral 12
project approved by the Bureau of Land Man-13
agement or the Forest Service; or 14
‘‘(C) any other Federal permit or author-15
ization for a mineral project. 16
‘‘(4) M
INERAL PROJECT.—The term ‘mineral 17
project’ means a project— 18
‘‘(A) located on— 19
‘‘(i) a mining claim, millsite claim, or 20
tunnel site claim for any mineral; 21
‘‘(ii) lands open to mineral entry; or 22
‘‘(iii) a Federal mineral lease; and 23
‘‘(B) for the purposes of exploring for or 24
producing minerals.’’; 25 154
•HR 1 EH
(3) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘critical’’ each 1
place such term appears; 2
(4) in subsection (c)— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘critical mineral production 4
on Federal land’’ and inserting ‘‘mineral 5
projects’’; 6
(B) by inserting ‘‘, and in accordance with 7
subsection (h)’’ after ‘‘to the maximum extent 8
practicable’’; 9
(C) by striking ‘‘shall complete the’’ and 10
inserting ‘‘shall complete such’’; 11
(D) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘critical 12
mineral-related activities on Federal land’’ and 13
inserting ‘‘mineral projects’’; 14
(E) in paragraph (8), by striking the 15
‘‘and’’ at the end; 16
(F) in paragraph (9), by striking ‘‘proce-17
dures.’’ and inserting ‘‘procedures; and’’; and 18
(G) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(10) deferring to and relying on baseline data, 20
analyses, and reviews performed by State agencies 21
with jurisdiction over the environmental or reclama-22
tion permits for the proposed mineral project.’’; 23
(5) in subsection (d)— 24 155
•HR 1 EH
(A) by striking ‘‘critical’’ each place such 1
term appears; and 2
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘mineral- 3
related activities on Federal land’’ and inserting 4
‘‘mineral projects’’; 5
(6) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘critical’’; 6
(7) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘critical’’ each 7
place such term appears; 8
(8) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘critical’’ each 9
place such term appears; and 10
(9) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(h) O
THERREQUIREMENTS.— 12
‘‘(1) M
EMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT .—For pur-13
poses of maximizing efficiency and effectiveness of 14
the Federal permitting and review processes de-15
scribed under subsection (c), the lead agency in the 16
Federal permitting and review processes of a min-17
eral project shall (in consultation with any other 18
Federal agency involved in such Federal permitting 19
and review processes, and upon request of the 20
project applicant, an affected State government, 21
local government, or an Indian Tribe, or other entity 22
such lead agency determines appropriate) enter into 23
a memorandum of agreement with a project appli-24 156
•HR 1 EH
cant where requested by the applicant to carry out 1
the activities described in subsection (c). 2
‘‘(2) T
IMELINES AND SCHEDULES FOR NEPA 3
REVIEWS.— 4
‘‘(A) E
XTENSION.—A project applicant 5
may enter into 1 or more agreements with a 6
lead agency to extend the deadlines described in 7
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection (h)(1) 8
of section 107 of title I of the National Envi-9
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 by, with respect 10
to each such agreement, not more than 6 11
months. 12
‘‘(B) A
DJUSTMENT OF TIMELINES .—At 13
the request of a project applicant, the lead 14
agency and any other entity which is a signa-15
tory to a memorandum of agreement under 16
paragraph (1) may, by unanimous agreement, 17
adjust— 18
‘‘(i) any deadlines described in sub-19
paragraph (A); and 20
‘‘(ii) any deadlines extended under 21
subparagraph (B). 22
‘‘(3) E
FFECT ON PENDING APPLICATIONS .— 23
Upon a written request by a project applicant, the 24
requirements of this subsection shall apply to any 25 157
•HR 1 EH
application for a mineral exploration or mine permit 1
or mineral lease that was submitted before the date 2
of the enactment of the TAPP American Resources 3
Act.’’. 4
SEC. 20303. FEDERAL REGISTER PROCESS IMPROVEMENT. 5
Section 7002(f) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 6
U.S.C. 1606(f)) is amended— 7
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘critical’’ both 8
places such term appears; and 9
(2) by striking paragraph (4). 10
SEC. 20304. DESIGNATION OF MINING AS A COVERED SEC-11
TOR FOR FEDERAL PERMITTING IMPROVE-12
MENT PURPOSES. 13
Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 14
4370m(6)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘mineral produc-15
tion,’’ before ‘‘or any other sector’’. 16
SEC. 20305. TREATMENT OF ACTIONS UNDER PRESI-17
DENTIAL DETERMINATION 2022–11 FOR FED-18
ERAL PERMITTING IMPROVEMENT PUR-19
POSES. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided by subsection 21
(c), an action described in subsection (b) shall be— 22
(1) treated as a covered project, as defined in 23
section 41001(6) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 24 158
•HR 1 EH
4370m(6)), without regard to the requirements of 1
that section; and 2
(2) included in the Permitting Dashboard main-3
tained pursuant to section 41003(b) of that Act (42 4
13 U.S.C. 4370m–2(b)). 5
(b) A
CTIONSDESCRIBED.—An action described in 6
this subsection is an action taken by the Secretary of De-7
fense pursuant to Presidential Determination 2022–11 8
(87 Fed. Reg. 19775; relating to certain actions under 9
section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950) or 10
the Presidential Memorandum of February 27, 2023, ti-11
tled ‘‘Presidential Waiver of Statutory Requirements Pur-12
suant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 13
1950, as amended, on Department of Defense Supply 14
Chains Resilience’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 13015) to create, main-15
tain, protect, expand, or restore sustainable and respon-16
sible domestic production capabilities through— 17
(1) supporting feasibility studies for mature 18
mining, beneficiation, and value-added processing 19
projects; 20
(2) byproduct and co-product production at ex-21
isting mining, mine waste reclamation, and other in-22
dustrial facilities; 23 159
•HR 1 EH
(3) modernization of mining, beneficiation, and 1
value-added processing to increase productivity, envi-2
ronmental sustainability, and workforce safety; or 3
(4) any other activity authorized under section 4
303(a)(1) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 15 5
(50 U.S.C. 4533(a)(1)). 6
(c) E
XCEPTION.—An action described in subsection 7
(b) may not be treated as a covered project or be included 8
in the Permitting Dashboard under subsection (a) if the 9
project sponsor (as defined in section 41001(18) of the 10
FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 21 4370m(18))) requests that the 11
action not be treated as a covered project. 12
SEC. 20306. NOTICE FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION ACTIVI-13
TIES WITH LIMITED SURFACE DISTURBANCE. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 15 days before 15
commencing an exploration activity with a surface disturb-16
ance of not more than 5 acres of public lands, the operator 17
of such exploration activity shall submit to the Secretary 18
concerned a complete notice of such exploration activity. 19
(b) I
NCLUSIONS.—Notice submitted under subsection 20
(a) shall include such information the Secretary concerned 21
may require, including the information described in sec-22
tion 3809.301 of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (or 23
any successor regulation). 24 160
•HR 1 EH
(c) REVIEW.—Not later than 15 days after the Sec-1
retary concerned receives notice submitted under sub-2
section (a), the Secretary concerned shall— 3
(1) review and determine completeness of the 4
notice; and 5
(2) allow exploration activities to proceed if— 6
(A) the surface disturbance of such explo-7
ration activities on such public lands will not 8
exceed 5 acres; 9
(B) the Secretary concerned determines 10
that the notice is complete; and 11
(C) the operator provides financial assur-12
ance that the Secretary concerned determines is 13
adequate. 14
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
(1) E
XPLORATION ACTIVITY.—The term ‘‘explo-16
ration activity’’— 17
(A) means creating surface disturbance 18
greater than casual use that includes sampling, 19
drilling, or developing surface or underground 20
workings to evaluate the type, extent, quantity, 21
or quality of mineral values present; 22
(B) includes constructing drill roads and 23
drill pads, drilling, trenching, excavating test 24 161
•HR 1 EH
pits, and conducting geotechnical tests and geo-1
physical surveys; and 2
(C) does not include activities where mate-3
rial is extracted for commercial use or sale. 4
(2) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-5
retary concerned’’ means— 6
(A) with respect to lands administered by 7
the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of 8
the Interior; and 9
(B) with respect to National Forest Sys-10
tem lands, the Secretary of Agriculture. 11
SEC. 20307. USE OF MINING CLAIMS FOR ANCILLARY AC-12
TIVITIES. 13
Section 10101 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation 14
Act of 1993 (30 U.S.C. 28f) is amended by adding at the 15
end the following: 16
‘‘(e) S
ECURITY OFTENURE.— 17
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A claimant shall have 19
the right to use, occupy, and conduct operations 20
on public land, with or without the discovery of 21
a valuable mineral deposit, if— 22
‘‘(i) such claimant makes a timely 23
payment of the location fee required by 24 162
•HR 1 EH
section 10102 and the claim maintenance 1
fee required by subsection (a); or 2
‘‘(ii) in the case of a claimant who 3
qualifies for a waiver under subsection (d), 4
such claimant makes a timely payment of 5
the location fee and complies with the re-6
quired assessment work under the general 7
mining laws. 8
‘‘(B) O
PERATIONS DEFINED .—For the 9
purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘oper-10
ations’ means— 11
‘‘(i) any activity or work carried out 12
in connection with prospecting, exploration, 13
processing, discovery and assessment, de-14
velopment, or extraction with respect to a 15
locatable mineral; 16
‘‘(ii) the reclamation of any disturbed 17
areas; and 18
‘‘(iii) any other reasonably incident 19
uses, whether on a mining claim or not, in-20
cluding the construction and maintenance 21
of facilities, roads, transmission lines, pipe-22
lines, and any other necessary infrastruc-23
ture or means of access on public land for 24
support facilities. 25 163
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) FULFILLMENT OF FEDERAL LAND POLICY 1
AND MANAGEMENT ACT .—A claimant that fulfills 2
the requirements of this section and section 10102 3
shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements of any 4
provision of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-5
ment Act that requires the payment of fair market 6
value to the United States for use of public lands 7
and resources relating to use of such lands and re-8
sources authorized by the general mining laws. 9
‘‘(3) S
AVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this sub-10
section may be construed to diminish the rights of 11
entry, use, and occupancy, or any other right, of a 12
claimant under the general mining laws.’’. 13
SEC. 20308. ENSURING CONSIDERATION OF URANIUM AS A 14
CRITICAL MINERAL. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 7002(a)(3)(B)(i) of the 16
Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)(3)(B)(i)) is 17
amended to read as follows: 18
‘‘(i) oil, oil shale, coal, or natural 19
gas;’’. 20
(b) U
PDATE.—Not later than 60 days after the date 21
of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, acting 22
through the Director of the United States Geological Sur-23
vey, shall publish in the Federal Register an update to 24
the final list established in section 7002(c)(3) of the En-25 164
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ergy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(c)(3)) in accordance 1
with subsection (a) of this section. 2
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 3
of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, acting 4
through the Director of the United States Geological Sur-5
vey, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall 6
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 7
that includes the following: 8
(1) The current status of uranium deposits in 9
the United States with respect to the amount and 10
quality of uranium contained in such deposits. 11
(2) A comparison of the United States to the 12
rest of the world with respect to the amount and 13
quality of uranium contained in uranium deposits. 14
(3) Policy considerations, including potential 15
challenges, of utilizing the uranium from the depos-16
its described in paragraph (1). 17
SEC. 20309. BARRING FOREIGN BAD ACTORS FROM OPER-18
ATING ON FEDERAL LANDS. 19
A mining claimant shall be barred from the right to 20
use, occupy, and conduct operations on Federal land if the 21
Secretary of the Interior finds the claimant has a foreign 22
parent company that has (including through a sub-23
sidiary)— 24 165
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(1) a known record of human rights violations; 1
or 2
(2) knowingly operated an illegal mine in an-3
other country. 4
SEC. 20310. PERMIT PROCESS FOR PROJECTS RELATING TO 5
EXTRACTION, RECOVERY, OR PROCESSING 6
OF CRITICAL MATERIALS. 7
(a) D
EFINITION OFCOVEREDPROJECT.—Section 8
41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m(6)(A)) 9
is amended— 10
(1) in clause (iii)(III), by striking ‘‘; or’’ and in-11
serting ‘‘;’’; 12
(2) in clause (iv)(II), by striking the period at 13
the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 14
(3) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(v) is related to the extraction, recov-16
ery, or processing from coal, coal waste, 17
coal processing waste, pre-or post-combus-18
tion coal byproducts, or acid mine drainage 19
from coal mines of— 20
‘‘(I) critical minerals (as such 21
term is defined in section 7002 of the 22
Energy Act of 2020); 23
‘‘(II) rare earth elements; or 24 166
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‘‘(III) microfine carbon or carbon 1
from coal.’’. 2
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 6 months after the date 3
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior 4
shall submit to the Committees on Energy and Natural 5
Resources and Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 6
the Senate and the Committees on Transportation and In-7
frastructure, Natural Resources, and Energy and Com-8
merce of the House of Representatives a report evaluating 9
the timeliness of implementation of reforms of the permit-10
ting process required as a result of the amendments made 11
by this section on the following: 12
(1) The economic and national security of the 13
United States. 14
(2) Domestic production and supply of critical 15
minerals, rare earths, and microfine carbon or car-16
bon from coal. 17
SEC. 20311. NATIONAL STRATEGY TO RE-SHORE MINERAL 18
SUPPLY CHAINS. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 20
date of enactment of this Act, the United States Geologi-21
cal Survey, in consultation with the Secretaries of De-22
fense, Energy, and State, shall— 23
(1) identify mineral commodities that— 24 167
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(A) serve a critical purpose to the national 1
security of the United States, including with re-2
spect to military, defense, and strategic mobility 3
applications; and 4
(B) are at highest risk of supply chain dis-5
ruption due to the domestic or global actions of 6
any covered entity, including price-fixing, sys-7
temic acquisition and control of global mineral 8
resources and processing, refining, and smelting 9
capacity, and undercutting the fair market 10
value of such resources; and 11
(2) develop a national strategy for bolstering 12
supply chains in the United States for the mineral 13
commodities identified under paragraph (1), includ-14
ing through the enactment of new national policies 15
and the utilization of current authorities, to increase 16
capacity and efficiency of domestic mining, refining, 17
processing, and manufacturing of such mineral com-18
modities. 19
(b) C
OVEREDENTITY.—In this section, the term 20
‘‘covered entity’’ means an entity that— 21
(1) is subject to the jurisdiction or direction of 22
the People’s Republic of China; 23
(2) is directly or indirectly operating on behalf 24
of the People’s Republic of China; or 25 168
•HR 1 EH
(3) is owned by, directly or indirectly controlled 1
by, or otherwise subject to the influence of the Peo-2
ple’s Republic of China. 3
TITLE IV—FEDERAL LAND USE 4
PLANNING 5
SEC. 20401. FEDERAL LAND USE PLANNING AND WITH-6
DRAWALS. 7
(a) R
ESOURCEASSESSMENTSREQUIRED.—Federal 8
lands and waters may not be withdrawn from entry under 9
the mining laws or operation of the mineral leasing and 10
mineral materials laws unless— 11
(1) a quantitative and qualitative geophysical 12
and geological mineral resource assessment of the 13
impacted area has been completed during the 10- 14
year period ending on the date of such withdrawal; 15
(2) the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-16
retary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, and 17
the Secretary of Defense, conducts an assessment of 18
the economic, energy, strategic, and national secu-19
rity value of mineral deposits identified in such min-20
eral resource assessment; 21
(3) the Secretary conducts an assessment of the 22
reduction in future Federal revenues to the Treas-23
ury, States, the Land and Water Conservation 24
Fund, the Historic Preservation Fund, and the Na-25 169
•HR 1 EH
tional Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration 1
Fund resulting from the proposed mineral with-2
drawal; 3
(4) the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-4
retary of Defense, conducts an assessment of mili-5
tary readiness and training activities in the proposed 6
withdrawal area; and 7
(5) the Secretary submits a report to the Com-8
mittees on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Energy 9
and Commerce, and Foreign Affairs of the House of 10
Representatives and the Committees on Energy and 11
Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Foreign Affairs 12
of the Senate, that includes the results of the assess-13
ments completed pursuant to this subsection. 14
(b) L
ANDUSEPLANS.—Before a resource manage-15
ment plan under the Federal Land Policy and Manage-16
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) or a forest 17
management plan under the National Forest Management 18
Act is updated or completed, the Secretary or Secretary 19
of Agriculture, as applicable, in consultation with the Di-20
rector of the United States Geological Survey, shall— 21
(1) review any quantitative and qualitative min-22
eral resource assessment that was completed or up-23
dated during the 10-year period ending on the date 24
that the applicable land management agency pub-25 170
•HR 1 EH
lishes a notice to prepare, revise, or amend a land 1
use plan by the Director of the United States Geo-2
logical Survey for the geographic area affected by 3
the applicable management plan; 4
(2) the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-5
retary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, and 6
the Secretary of Defense, conducts an assessment of 7
the economic, energy, strategic, and national secu-8
rity value of mineral deposits identified in such min-9
eral resource assessment; and 10
(3) submit a report to the Committees on Nat-11
ural Resources, Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, 12
and Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives 13
and the Committees on Energy and Natural Re-14
sources, Agriculture, and Foreign Affairs of the Sen-15
ate, that includes the results of the assessment com-16
pleted pursuant to this subsection. 17
(c) N
EWINFORMATION.—The Secretary shall provide 18
recommendations to the President on appropriate meas-19
ures to reduce unnecessary impacts that a withdrawal of 20
Federal lands or waters from entry under the mining laws 21
or operation of the mineral leasing and mineral materials 22
laws may have on mineral exploration, development, and 23
other mineral activities (including authorizing exploration 24
and development of such mineral deposits) not later than 25 171
•HR 1 EH
180 days after the Secretary has notice that a resource 1
assessment completed by the Director of the United States 2
Geological Survey, in coordination with the State geologi-3
cal surveys, determines that a previously undiscovered 4
mineral deposit may be present in an area that has been 5
withdrawn from entry under the mining laws or operation 6
of the mineral leasing and mineral materials laws pursu-7
ant to— 8
(1) section 204 of the Federal Land Policy and 9
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1714); or 10
(2) chapter 3203 of title 54, United States 11
Code. 12
SEC. 20402. PROHIBITIONS ON DELAY OF MINERAL DEVEL-13
OPMENT OF CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND. 14
(a) P
ROHIBITIONS.—Notwithstanding any other pro-15
vision of law, the President shall not carry out any action 16
that would pause, restrict, or delay the process for or 17
issuance of any of the following on Federal land, unless 18
such lands are withdrawn from disposition under the min-19
eral leasing laws, including by administrative withdrawal: 20
(1) New oil and gas lease sales, oil and gas 21
leases, drill permits, or associated approvals or au-22
thorizations of any kind associated with oil and gas 23
leases. 24 172
•HR 1 EH
(2) New coal leases (including leases by applica-1
tion in process, renewals, modifications, or expan-2
sions of existing leases), permits, approvals, or au-3
thorizations. 4
(3) New leases, claims, permits, approvals, or 5
authorizations for development or exploration of 6
minerals. 7
(b) P
ROHIBITION ONRESCISSION OFLEASES, PER-8
MITS, ORCLAIMS.—The President, the Secretary, or Sec-9
retary of Agriculture as applicable, may not rescind any 10
existing lease, permit, or claim for the extraction and pro-11
duction of any mineral under the mining laws or mineral 12
leasing and mineral materials laws on National Forest 13
System land or land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau 14
of Land Management, unless specifically authorized by 15
Federal statute, or upon the lessee, permittee, or claim-16
ant’s failure to comply with any of the provisions of the 17
applicable lease, permit, or claim. 18
(c) M
INERALDEFINED.—In subsection (a)(3), the 19
term ‘‘mineral’’ means any mineral of a kind that is 20
locatable (including such minerals located on ‘‘lands ac-21
quired by the United States’’, as such term is defined in 22
section 2 of the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands) 23
under the Act of May 10, 1872 (Chapter 152; 17 Stat. 24
91). 25 173
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SEC. 20403. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this title: 2
(1) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 3
means— 4
(A) National Forest System land; 5
(B) public lands (as defined in section 103 6
of the Federal Land Policy and Management 7
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)); 8
(C) the outer Continental Shelf (as defined 9
in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf 10
Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331)); and 11
(D) land managed by the Secretary of En-12
ergy. 13
(2) P
RESIDENT.—The term ‘‘President’’ 14
means— 15
(A) the President; and 16
(B) any designee of the President, includ-17
ing— 18
(i) the Secretary of Agriculture; 19
(ii) the Secretary of Commerce; 20
(iii) the Secretary of Energy; and 21
(iv) the Secretary of the Interior. 22
(3) P
REVIOUSLY UNDISCOVERED DEPOSIT .— 23
The term ‘‘previously undiscovered mineral deposit’’ 24
means— 25 174
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(A) a mineral deposit that has been pre-1
viously evaluated by the United States Geologi-2
cal Survey and found to be of low mineral po-3
tential, but upon subsequent evaluation is de-4
termined by the United States Geological Sur-5
vey to have significant mineral potential; or 6
(B) a mineral deposit that has not pre-7
viously been evaluated by the United States Ge-8
ological Survey. 9
(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 10
the Secretary of the Interior. 11
TITLE V—ENSURING COMPETI-12
TIVENESS ON FEDERAL 13
LANDS 14
SEC. 20501. INCENTIVIZING DOMESTIC PRODUCTION. 15
(a) O
FFSHOREOIL ANDGASROYALTYRATE.—Sec-16
tion 8(a)(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 17
U.S.C. 1337(a)(1)) is amended— 18
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘not less 19
than 16
2
∕3percent, but not more than 18
3
∕4percent, 20
during the 10-year period beginning on the date of 21
enactment of the Act titled ‘An Act to provide for 22
reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 23
14’, and not less than 16
2
∕3percent thereafter,’’ 24 175
•HR 1 EH
each place it appears and inserting ‘‘not less than 1
12.5 percent’’; 2
(2) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘not less 3
than 16
2
∕3percent, but not more than 18
3
∕4percent, 4
during the 10-year period beginning on the date of 5
enactment of the Act titled ‘An Act to provide for 6
reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 7
14’, and not less than 16
2
∕3percent thereafter,’’ 8
each place it appears and inserting ‘‘not less than 9
12.5 percent’’; 10
(3) in subparagraph (F), by striking ‘‘not less 11
than 16
2
∕3percent, but not more than 18
3
∕4percent, 12
during the 10-year period beginning on the date of 13
enactment of the Act titled ‘An Act to provide for 14
reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 15
14’, and not less than 16
2
∕3percent thereafter,’’ and 16
inserting ‘‘not less than 12.5 percent’’; and 17
(4) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘not less 18
than 16
2
∕3percent, but not more than 18
3
∕4percent, 19
during the 10-year period beginning on the date of 20
enactment of the Act titled ‘An Act to provide for 21
reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 22
14’, and not less than 16
2
∕3percent thereafter,’’ and 23
inserting ‘‘not less than 12.5 percent’’. 24
(b) M
INERALLEASINGACT.— 25 176
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(1) ONSHORE OIL AND GAS ROYALTY RATES .— 1
(A) L
EASE OF OIL AND GAS LAND .—Sec-2
tion 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 3
226) is amended— 4
(i) in subsection (b)(1)(A)— 5
(I) by striking ‘‘not less than 6
16
2
∕3’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than 7
12.5’’; and 8
(II) by striking ‘‘or, in the case 9
of a lease issued during the 10-year 10
period beginning on the date of enact-11
ment of the Act titled ‘An Act to pro-12
vide for reconciliation pursuant to 13
title II of S. Con. Res. 14’, 16
2
∕3per-14
cent in amount or value of the pro-15
duction removed or sold from the 16
lease’’; and 17
(ii) by striking ‘‘16
2
∕3percent’’ each 18
place it appears and inserting ‘‘12.5 per-19
cent’’. 20
(B) C
ONDITIONS FOR REINSTATEMENT .— 21
Section 31(e)(3) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 22
U.S.C. 188(e)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘20’’ 23
inserting ‘‘16
2
∕3’’. 24 177
•HR 1 EH
(2) OIL AND GAS MINIMUM BID .—Section 17(b) 1
of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(b)) is 2
amended— 3
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘$10 4
per acre during the 10-year period beginning on 5
the date of enactment of the Act titled ‘An Act 6
to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II 7
of S. Con. Res. 14’.’’ and inserting ‘‘$2 per 8
acre for a period of 2 years from the date of 9
the enactment of the Federal Onshore Oil and 10
Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987.’’; and 11
(B) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking ‘‘$10 12
per acre’’ and inserting ‘‘$2 per acre’’. 13
(3) F
OSSIL FUEL RENTAL RATES .—Section 14
17(d) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 15
226(d)) is amended to read as follows: 16
‘‘(d) All leases issued under this section, as amended 17
by the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act 18
of 1987, shall be conditioned upon payment by the lessee 19
of a rental of not less than $1.50 per acre per year for 20
the first through fifth years of the lease and not less than 21
$2 per acre per year for each year thereafter. A minimum 22
royalty in lieu of rental of not less than the rental which 23
otherwise would be required for that lease year shall be 24
payable at the expiration of each lease year beginning on 25 178
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or after a discovery of oil or gas in paying quantities on 1
the lands leased.’’. 2
(4) E
XPRESSION OF INTEREST FEE .—Section 3
17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is 4
further amended by repealing subsection (q). 5
(5) E
LIMINATION OF NONCOMPETITIVE LEAS -6
ING.—Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 7
U.S.C. 226) is further amended— 8
(A) in subsection (b)— 9
(i) in paragraph (1)(A)— 10
(I) in the first sentence, by strik-11
ing ‘‘paragraph (2)’’ and inserting 12
‘‘paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 13
(II) by adding at the end ‘‘Lands 14
for which no bids are received or for 15
which the highest bid is less than the 16
national minimum acceptable bid shall 17
be offered promptly within 30 days 18
for leasing under subsection (c) of this 19
section and shall remain available for 20
leasing for a period of 2 years after 21
the competitive lease sale.’’; and 22
(ii) by adding at the end the fol-23
lowing: 24 179
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‘‘(3)(A) If the United States held a vested fu-1
ture interest in a mineral estate that, immediately 2
prior to becoming a vested present interest, was sub-3
ject to a lease under which oil or gas was being pro-4
duced, or had a well capable of producing, in paying 5
quantities at an annual average production volume 6
per well per day of either not more than 15 barrels 7
per day of oil or condensate, or not more than 8
60,000 cubic feet of gas, the holder of the lease may 9
elect to continue the lease as a noncompetitive lease 10
under subsection (c)(1). 11
‘‘(B) An election under this paragraph is effec-12
tive— 13
‘‘(i) in the case of an interest which vested 14
after January 1, 1990, and on or before Octo-15
ber 24, 1992, if the election is made before the 16
date that is 1 year after October 24, 1992; 17
‘‘(ii) in the case of an interest which vests 18
within 1 year after October 24, 1992, if the 19
election is made before the date that is 2 years 20
after October 24, 1992; and 21
‘‘(iii) in any case other than those de-22
scribed in clause (i) or (ii), if the election is 23
made prior to the interest becoming a vested 24
present interest.’’; 25 180
•HR 1 EH
(B) by striking subsection (c) and insert-1
ing the following: 2
‘‘(c) L
ANDSSUBJECT TOLEASINGUNDERSUB-3
SECTION(B); FIRSTQUALIFIEDAPPLICANT.— 4
‘‘(1) If the lands to be leased are not leased 5
under subsection (b)(1) of this section or are not 6
subject to competitive leasing under subsection 7
(b)(2) of this section, the person first making appli-8
cation for the lease who is qualified to hold a lease 9
under this chapter shall be entitled to a lease of 10
such lands without competitive bidding, upon pay-11
ment of a non-refundable application fee of at least 12
$75. A lease under this subsection shall be condi-13
tioned upon the payment of a royalty at a rate of 14
12.5 percent in amount or value of the production 15
removed or sold from the lease. Leases shall be 16
issued within 60 days of the date on which the Sec-17
retary identifies the first responsible qualified appli-18
cant. 19
‘‘(2)(A) Lands (i) which were posted for sale 20
under subsection (b)(1) of this section but for which 21
no bids were received or for which the highest bid 22
was less than the national minimum acceptable bid 23
and (ii) for which, at the end of the period referred 24
to in subsection (b)(1) of this section no lease has 25 181
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been issued and no lease application is pending 1
under paragraph (1) of this subsection, shall again 2
be available for leasing only in accordance with sub-3
section (b)(1) of this section. 4
‘‘(B) The land in any lease which is issued 5
under paragraph (1) of this subsection or under sub-6
section (b)(1) of this section which lease terminates, 7
expires, is cancelled or is relinquished shall again be 8
available for leasing only in accordance with sub-9
section (b)(1) of this section.’’; and 10
(C) by striking subsection (e) and inserting 11
the following: 12
‘‘(e) P
RIMARYTERM.—Competitive and noncompeti-13
tive leases issued under this section shall be for a primary 14
term of 10 years: Provided, however, That competitive 15
leases issued in special tar sand areas shall also be for 16
a primary term of 10 years. Each such lease shall continue 17
so long after its primary term as oil or gas is produced 18
in paying quantities. Any lease issued under this section 19
for land on which, or for which under an approved cooper-20
ative or unit plan of development or operation, actual drill-21
ing operations were commenced prior to the end of its pri-22
mary term and are being diligently prosecuted at that time 23
shall be extended for two years and so long thereafter as 24
oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.’’. 25 182
•HR 1 EH
(6) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 31 of 1
the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 188) is amend-2
ed— 3
(A) in subsection (d)(1), by striking ‘‘sec-4
tion 17(b)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (b) or (c) 5
of section 17 of this Act’’; 6
(B) in subsection (e)— 7
(i) in paragraph (2)— 8
(I) insert ‘‘either’’ after ‘‘rentals 9
and’’; and 10
(II) insert ‘‘or the inclusion in a 11
reinstated lease issued pursuant to the 12
provisions of section 17(c) of this Act 13
of a requirement that future rentals 14
shall be at a rate not less than $5 per 15
acre per year, all’’ before ‘‘as deter-16
mined by the Secretary’’; and 17
(ii) by amending paragraph (3) to 18
read as follows: 19
‘‘(3)(A) payment of back royalties and the in-20
clusion in a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the 21
provisions of section 17(b) of this Act of a require-22
ment for future royalties at a rate of not less than 23
16
2
∕3percent computed on a sliding scale based 24
upon the average production per well per day, at a 25 183
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rate which shall be not less than 4 percentage points 1
greater than the competitive royalty schedule then in 2
force and used for royalty determination for com-3
petitive leases issued pursuant to such section as de-4
termined by the Secretary: Provided, That royalty 5
on such reinstated lease shall be paid on all produc-6
tion removed or sold from such lease subsequent to 7
the termination of the original lease; 8
‘‘(B) payment of back royalties and inclusion in 9
a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the provisions 10
of section 17(c) of this Act of a requirement for fu-11
ture royalties at a rate not less than 16
2
∕3percent: 12
Provided, That royalty on such reinstated lease shall 13
be paid on all production removed or sold from such 14
lease subsequent to the cancellation or termination 15
of the original lease; and’’; 16
(C) in subsection (f)— 17
(i) in paragraph (1), strike ‘‘in the 18
same manner as the original lease issued 19
pursuant to section 17’’ and insert ‘‘as a 20
competitive or a noncompetitive oil and gas 21
lease in the same manner as the original 22
lease issued pursuant to subsection (b) or 23
(c) of section 17 of this Act’’; 24 184
•HR 1 EH
(ii) by redesignating paragraphs (2) 1
and (3) as paragraph (3) and (4), respec-2
tively; and 3
(iii) by inserting after paragraph (1) 4
the following: 5
‘‘(2) Except as otherwise provided in this sec-6
tion, the issuance of a lease in lieu of an abandoned 7
patented oil placer mining claim shall be treated as 8
a noncompetitive oil and gas lease issued pursuant 9
to section 17(c) of this Act.’’; 10
(D) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘sub-11
section (d)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (d) and 12
(f)’’; 13
(E) by amending subsection (h) to read as 14
follows: 15
‘‘(h) R
OYALTYREDUCTIONS.— 16
‘‘(1) In acting on a petition to issue a non-17
competitive oil and gas lease, under subsection (f) of 18
this section or in response to a request filed after 19
issuance of such a lease, or both, the Secretary is 20
authorized to reduce the royalty on such lease if in 21
his judgment it is equitable to do so or the cir-22
cumstances warrant such relief due to uneconomic 23
or other circumstances which could cause undue 24
hardship or premature termination of production. 25 185
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(2) In acting on a petition for reinstatement 1
pursuant to subsection (d) of this section or in re-2
sponse to a request filed after reinstatement, or 3
both, the Secretary is authorized to reduce the roy-4
alty in that reinstated lease on the entire leasehold 5
or any tract or portion thereof segregated for royalty 6
purposes if, in his judgment, there are uneconomic 7
or other circumstances which could cause undue 8
hardship or premature termination of production; or 9
because of any written action of the United States, 10
its agents or employees, which preceded, and was a 11
major consideration in, the lessee’s expenditure of 12
funds to develop the property under the lease after 13
the rent had become due and had not been paid; or 14
if in the judgment of the Secretary it is equitable to 15
do so for any reason.’’; 16
(F) by redesignating subsections (f) 17
through (i) as subsections (g) through (j), re-18
spectively; and 19
(G) by inserting after subsection (e) the 20
following: 21
‘‘(f) I
SSUANCE OFNONCOMPETITIVEOIL ANDGAS 22
L
EASE; CONDITIONS.—Where an unpatented oil placer 23
mining claim validly located prior to February 24, 1920, 24
which has been or is currently producing or is capable of 25 186
•HR 1 EH
producing oil or gas, has been or is hereafter deemed con-1
clusively abandoned for failure to file timely the required 2
instruments or copies of instruments required by section 3
1744 of title 43, and it is shown to the satisfaction of 4
the Secretary that such failure was inadvertent, justifi-5
able, or not due to lack of reasonable diligence on the part 6
of the owner, the Secretary may issue, for the lands cov-7
ered by the abandoned unpatented oil placer mining claim, 8
a noncompetitive oil and gas lease, consistent with the pro-9
visions of section 17(e) of this Act, to be effective from 10
the statutory date the claim was deemed conclusively 11
abandoned. Issuance of such a lease shall be conditioned 12
upon: 13
‘‘(1) a petition for issuance of a noncompetitive 14
oil and gas lease, together with the required rental 15
and royalty, including back rental and royalty accru-16
ing from the statutory date of abandonment of the 17
oil placer mining claim, being filed with the 18
Secretary- (A) with respect to any claim deemed 19
conclusively abandoned on or before January 12, 20
1983, on or before the one hundred and twentieth 21
day after January 12, 1983, or (B) with respect to 22
any claim deemed conclusively abandoned after Jan-23
uary 12, 1983, on or before the one hundred and 24
twentieth day after final notification by the Sec-25 187
•HR 1 EH
retary or a court of competent jurisdiction of the de-1
termination of the abandonment of the oil placer 2
mining claim; 3
‘‘(2) a valid lease not having been issued affect-4
ing any of the lands covered by the abandoned oil 5
placer mining claim prior to the filing of such peti-6
tion: Provided, however, That after the filing of a 7
petition for issuance of a lease under this subsection, 8
the Secretary shall not issue any new lease affecting 9
any of the lands covered by such abandoned oil plac-10
er mining claim for a reasonable period, as deter-11
mined in accordance with regulations issued by him; 12
‘‘(3) a requirement in the lease for payment of 13
rental, including back rentals accruing from the 14
statutory date of abandonment of the oil placer min-15
ing claim, of not less than $5 per acre per year; 16
‘‘(4) a requirement in the lease for payment of 17
royalty on production removed or sold from the oil 18
placer mining claim, including all royalty on produc-19
tion made subsequent to the statutory date the claim 20
was deemed conclusively abandoned, of not less than 21
12
1
∕2percent; and 22
‘‘(5) compliance with the notice and reimburse-23
ment of costs provisions of paragraph (4) of sub-24
section (e) but addressed to the petition covering the 25 188
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conversion of an abandoned unpatented oil placer 1
mining claim to a noncompetitive oil and gas lease.’’. 2
TITLE VI—ENERGY REVENUE 3
SHARING 4
SEC. 20601. GULF OF MEXICO OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF 5
REVENUE. 6
(a) D
ISTRIBUTION OFOUTERCONTINENTALSHELF 7
R
EVENUE TOGULFPRODUCINGSTATES.—Section 105 of 8
the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (43 9
U.S.C. 1331 note) is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (a)— 11
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘50’’ and 12
inserting ‘‘37.5’’; and 13
(B) in paragraph (2)— 14
(i) by striking ‘‘50’’ and inserting 15
‘‘62.5’’; 16
(ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 17
‘‘75’’ and inserting ‘‘80’’; and 18
(iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 19
‘‘25’’ and inserting ‘‘20’’; and 20
(2) by striking subsection (f) and inserting the 21
following: 22
‘‘(f) T
REATMENT OFAMOUNTS.—Amounts disbursed 23
to a Gulf producing State under this section shall be treat-24
ed as revenue sharing and not as a Federal award or grant 25 189
•HR 1 EH
for the purposes of part 200 of title 2, Code of Federal 1
Regulations.’’. 2
(b) E
XEMPTION OFCERTAINPAYMENTSFROMSE-3
QUESTRATION.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 255(g)(1)(A) of the 5
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 6
Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 905(g)(1)(A)) is amended by 7
inserting after ‘‘Payments to Social Security Trust 8
Funds (28–0404–0–1–651).’’ the following: 9
‘‘Payments to States pursuant to section 10
105(a)(2)(A) of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security 11
Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–432; 43 U.S.C. 1331 12
note) (014–5535–0–2–302).’’. 13
(2) A
PPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by 14
this subsection shall apply to any sequestration 15
order issued under the Balanced Budget and Emer-16
gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900 et 17
seq.) on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 18
SEC. 20602. PARITY IN OFFSHORE WIND REVENUE SHAR-19
ING. 20
(a) P
AYMENTS ANDREVENUES.—Section 8(p)(2) of 21
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 22
1337(p)(2)) is amended— 23
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘(A) The 24
Secretary’’ and inserting the following: 25 190
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-1
graphs (B) and (C), the Secretary’’; 2
(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘(B) The 3
Secretary’’ and inserting the following: 4
‘‘(B) D
ISPOSITION OF REVENUES FOR 5
PROJECTS LOCATED WITHIN 3 NAUTICAL MILES 6
SEAWARD OF STATE SUBMERGED LAND .—The 7
Secretary’’; and 8
(3) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(C) D
ISPOSITION OF REVENUES FOR OFF -10
SHORE WIND PROJECTS IN CERTAIN AREAS .— 11
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subpara-12
graph: 13
‘‘(I) C
OVERED OFFSHORE WIND 14
PROJECT.—The term ‘covered off-15
shore wind project’ means a wind 16
powered electric generation project in 17
a wind energy area on the outer Con-18
tinental Shelf that is not wholly or 19
partially located within an area sub-20
ject to subparagraph (B). 21
‘‘(II) E
LIGIBLE STATE.—The 22
term ‘eligible State’ means a State a 23
point on the coastline of which is lo-24
cated within 75 miles of the geo-25 191
•HR 1 EH
graphic center of a covered offshore 1
wind project. 2
‘‘(III) Q
UALIFIED OUTER CONTI -3
NENTAL SHELF REVENUES .—The 4
term ‘qualified outer Continental 5
Shelf revenues’ means all royalties, 6
fees, rentals, bonuses, or other pay-7
ments from covered offshore wind 8
projects carried out pursuant to this 9
subsection on or after the date of en-10
actment of this subparagraph. 11
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENT.— 12
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Sec-13
retary of the Treasury shall deposit— 14
‘‘(aa) 12.5 percent of quali-15
fied outer Continental Shelf reve-16
nues in the general fund of the 17
Treasury; 18
‘‘(bb) 37.5 percent of quali-19
fied outer Continental Shelf reve-20
nues in the North American Wet-21
lands Conservation Fund; and 22
‘‘(cc) 50 percent of qualified 23
outer Continental Shelf revenues 24
in a special account in the Treas-25 192
•HR 1 EH
ury from which the Secretary 1
shall disburse to each eligible 2
State an amount determined pur-3
suant to subclause (II). 4
‘‘(II) A
LLOCATION.— 5
‘‘(aa) I
N GENERAL.—Sub-6
ject to item (bb), for each fiscal 7
year beginning after the date of 8
enactment of this subparagraph, 9
the amount made available under 10
subclause (I)(cc) shall be allo-11
cated to each eligible State in 12
amounts (based on a formula es-13
tablished by the Secretary by 14
regulation) that are inversely 15
proportional to the respective dis-16
tances between the point on the 17
coastline of each eligible State 18
that is closest to the geographic 19
center of the applicable leased 20
tract and the geographic center 21
of the leased tract. 22
‘‘(bb) M
INIMUM ALLOCA -23
TION.—The amount allocated to 24
an eligible State each fiscal year 25 193
•HR 1 EH
under item (aa) shall be at least 1
10 percent of the amounts made 2
available under subclause (I)(cc). 3
‘‘(cc) P
AYMENTS TO COAST -4
AL POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS.— 5
‘‘(AA) I
N GENERAL.— 6
The Secretary shall pay 20 7
percent of the allocable 8
share of each eligible State, 9
as determined pursuant to 10
item (aa), to the coastal po-11
litical subdivisions of the eli-12
gible State. 13
‘‘(BB) A
LLOCATION.— 14
The amount paid by the 15
Secretary to coastal political 16
subdivisions under subitem 17
(AA) shall be allocated to 18
each coastal political sub-19
division in accordance with 20
subparagraphs (B) and (C) 21
of section 31(b)(4) of this 22
Act. 23
‘‘(iii) T
IMING.—The amounts required 24
to be deposited under subclause (I) of 25 194
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clause (ii) for the applicable fiscal year 1
shall be made available in accordance with 2
such subclause during the fiscal year im-3
mediately following the applicable fiscal 4
year. 5
‘‘(iv) A
UTHORIZED USES.— 6
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to 7
subclause (II), each eligible State 8
shall use all amounts received under 9
clause (ii)(II) in accordance with all 10
applicable Federal and State laws, 11
only for 1 or more of the following 12
purposes: 13
‘‘(aa) Projects and activities 14
for the purposes of coastal pro-15
tection and resiliency, including 16
conservation, coastal restoration, 17
estuary management, beach 18
nourishment, hurricane and flood 19
protection, and infrastructure di-20
rectly affected by coastal wetland 21
losses. 22
‘‘(bb) Mitigation of damage 23
to fish, wildlife, or natural re-24 195
•HR 1 EH
sources, including through fish-1
eries science and research. 2
‘‘(cc) Implementation of a 3
federally approved marine, coast-4
al, or comprehensive conservation 5
management plan. 6
‘‘(dd) Mitigation of the im-7
pact of outer Continental Shelf 8
activities through the funding of 9
onshore infrastructure projects. 10
‘‘(ee) Planning assistance 11
and the administrative costs of 12
complying with this section. 13
‘‘(ff) Infrastructure improve-14
ments at ports, including modi-15
fications to Federal navigation 16
channels, to support installation 17
of offshore wind energy projects. 18
‘‘(II) L
IMITATION.—Of the 19
amounts received by an eligible State 20
under clause (ii)(II), not more than 3 21
percent shall be used for the purposes 22
described in subclause (I)(ee). 23
‘‘(v) A
DMINISTRATION.—Subject to 24
clause (vi)(III), amounts made available 25 196
•HR 1 EH
under items (aa) and (cc) of clause (ii)(I) 1
shall— 2
‘‘(I) be made available, without 3
further appropriation, in accordance 4
with this subparagraph; 5
‘‘(II) remain available until ex-6
pended; and 7
‘‘(III) be in addition to any 8
amount appropriated under any other 9
Act. 10
‘‘(vi) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENT .— 11
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—Not later 12
than 180 days after the end of each 13
fiscal year, the Governor of each eligi-14
ble State that receives amounts under 15
clause (ii)(II) for the applicable fiscal 16
year shall submit to the Secretary a 17
report that describes the use of the 18
amounts by the eligible State during 19
the period covered by the report. 20
‘‘(II) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY.—On 21
receipt of a report submitted under 22
subclause (I), the Secretary shall 23
make the report available to the pub-24 197
•HR 1 EH
lic on the website of the Department 1
of the Interior. 2
‘‘(III) L
IMITATION.—If the Gov-3
ernor of an eligible State that receives 4
amounts under clause (ii)(II) fails to 5
submit the report required under sub-6
clause (I) by the deadline specified in 7
that subclause, any amounts that 8
would otherwise be provided to the eli-9
gible State under clause (ii)(II) for 10
the succeeding fiscal year shall be de-11
posited in the Treasury. 12
‘‘(vii) T
REATMENT OF AMOUNTS .— 13
Amounts disbursed to an eligible State 14
under this subsection shall be treated as 15
revenue sharing and not as a Federal 16
award or grant for the purposes of part 17
200 of title 2, Code of Federal Regula-18
tions.’’. 19
(b) W
INDLEASESALES FORAREAS OF THEOUTER 20
C
ONTINENTALSHELFOFFSHORE OF TERRITORIES OF 21
THEUNITEDSTATES.—Section 33 of the Outer Conti-22
nental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1356c) is amended by 23
adding at the end the following: 24 198
•HR 1 EH
‘‘(b) WINDLEASESALEPROCEDURE.—Any wind 1
lease granted pursuant to this section shall be considered 2
a wind lease granted under section 8(p), including for pur-3
poses of the disposition of revenues pursuant to subpara-4
graphs (B) and (C) of section 8(p)(2).’’. 5
(c) E
XEMPTION OFCERTAINPAYMENTSFROMSE-6
QUESTRATION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 255(g)(1)(A) of the 8
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 9
Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 905(g)(1)(A)) is amended by 10
inserting after ‘‘Payments to Social Security Trust 11
Funds (28–0404–0–1–651).’’ the following: 12
‘‘Payments to States pursuant to subparagraph 13
(C)(ii)(I)(cc) of section 8(p)(2) of the Outer Conti-14
nental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1337(p)(2)).’’. 15
(2) A
PPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by 16
this subsection shall apply to any sequestration 17
order issued under the Balanced Budget and Emer-18
gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900 et 19
seq.) on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 20
SEC. 20603. ELIMINATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE FEE UNDER 21
THE MINERAL LEASING ACT. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 35 of the Mineral Leasing 23
Act (30 U.S.C. 191) is amended— 24 199
•HR 1 EH
(1) in subsection (a), in the first sentence, by 1
striking ‘‘and, subject to the provisions of subsection 2
(b),’’; 3
(2) by striking subsection (b); 4
(3) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 5
subsections (b) and (c), respectively; 6
(4) in paragraph (3)(B)(ii) of subsection (b) (as 7
so redesignated), by striking ‘‘subsection (d)’’ and 8
inserting ‘‘subsection (c)’’; and 9
(5) in paragraph (3)(A)(ii) of subsection (c) (as 10
so redesignated), by striking ‘‘subsection (c)(2)(B)’’ 11
and inserting ‘‘subsection (b)(2)(B)’’. 12
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 13
(1) Section 6(a) of the Mineral Leasing Act for 14
Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 355(a)) is amended— 15
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘Sub-16
ject to the provisions of section 35(b) of the 17
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191(b)), all’’ 18
and inserting ‘‘All’’; and 19
(B) in the second sentence, by striking ‘‘of 20
the Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 450; 30 21
U.S.C. 191),’’ and inserting ‘‘of the Mineral 22
Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191)’’. 23
(2) Section 20(a) of the Geothermal Steam Act 24
of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1019(a)) is amended, in the sec-25 200
•HR 1 EH
ond sentence of the matter preceding paragraph (1), 1
by striking ‘‘the provisions of subsection (b) of sec-2
tion 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 3
191(b)) and section 5(a)(2) of this Act’’ and insert-4
ing ‘‘section 5(a)(2)’’. 5
(3) Section 205(f) of the Federal Oil and Gas 6
Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 7
1735(f)) is amended— 8
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘this 9
Section’’ and inserting ‘‘this section’’; and 10
(B) by striking the fourth, fifth, and sixth 11
sentences. 12
SEC. 20604. SUNSET. 13
This title, and the amendments made by this title, 14
shall cease to have effect on September 30, 2032, and on 15
such date the provisions of law amended by this title shall 16
be restored or revived as if this title had not been enacted. 17
DIVISION C—WATER QUALITY 18
CERTIFICATION AND ENERGY 19
PROJECT IMPROVEMENT 20
SEC. 30001. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 21
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This division may be cited as the 22
‘‘Water Quality Certification and Energy Project Improve-23
ment Act of 2023’’. 24 201
•HR 1 EH
(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents of 1
this division is as follows: 2
DIVISION C—WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION AND ENERGY
PROJECT IMPROVEMENT
Sec. 30001. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 30002. Certification.
Sec. 30003. Federal general permits.
SEC. 30002. CERTIFICATION.
3
Section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 4
Act (33 U.S.C. 1341) is amended— 5
(1) in subsection (a)— 6
(A) in paragraph (1)— 7
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 8
‘‘may result’’ and inserting ‘‘may directly 9
result’’; 10
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 11
‘‘activity’’ and inserting ‘‘discharge’’; 12
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 13
‘‘applications’’ each place it appears and 14
inserting ‘‘requests’’; 15
(iv) in the fifth sentence, by striking 16
‘‘act on’’ and inserting ‘‘grant or deny’’; 17
and 18
(v) by inserting after the fourth sen-19
tence the following: ‘‘Not later than 30 20
days after the date of enactment of the 21
Water Quality Certification and Energy 22 202
•HR 1 EH
Project Improvement Act of 2023, each 1
State and interstate agency that has au-2
thority to give such a certification, and the 3
Administrator, shall publish requirements 4
for certification to demonstrate to such 5
State, such interstate agency, or the Ad-6
ministrator, as the case may be, compli-7
ance with the applicable provisions of sec-8
tions 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307. A deci-9
sion to grant or deny a request for certifi-10
cation shall be based only on the applicable 11
provisions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, 12
and 307, and the grounds for the decision 13
shall be set forth in writing and provided 14
to the applicant. Not later than 90 days 15
after receipt of a request for certification, 16
the State, interstate agency, or Adminis-17
trator, as the case may be, shall identify in 18
writing all specific additional materials or 19
information that are necessary to grant or 20
deny the request.’’; 21
(B) in paragraph (2)— 22
(i) in the second sentence, by striking 23
‘‘notice of application for such Federal li-24 203
•HR 1 EH
cense or permit’’ and inserting ‘‘receipt of 1
a notice under the preceding sentence’’; 2
(ii) in the third sentence, by striking 3
‘‘any water quality requirement’’ and in-4
serting ‘‘any applicable provision of section 5
301, 302, 303, 306, or 307’’; 6
(iii) in the fifth sentence, by striking 7
‘‘insure compliance with applicable water 8
quality requirements.’’ and inserting ‘‘en-9
sure compliance with the applicable provi-10
sions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 11
307.’’; 12
(iv) in the final sentence, by striking 13
‘‘insure’’ and inserting ‘‘ensure’’; and 14
(v) by striking the first sentence and 15
inserting ‘‘On receipt of a request for cer-16
tification, the certifying State or interstate 17
agency, as applicable, shall immediately 18
notify the Administrator of the request.’’; 19
(C) in paragraph (3), in the second sen-20
tence, by striking ‘‘section’’ and inserting ‘‘any 21
applicable provision of section’’; 22
(D) in paragraph (4)— 23
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 24
‘‘applicable effluent limitations or other 25 204
•HR 1 EH
limitations or other applicable water qual-1
ity requirements will not be violated’’ and 2
inserting ‘‘no applicable provision of sec-3
tion 301, 302, 303, 306, or 307 will be vio-4
lated’’; 5
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 6
‘‘will violate applicable effluent limitations 7
or other limitations or other water quality 8
requirements’’ and inserting ‘‘will directly 9
result in a discharge that violates an appli-10
cable provision of section 301, 302, 303, 11
306, or 307,’’; and 12
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 13
‘‘such facility or activity will not violate the 14
applicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘oper-15
ation of such facility or activity will not di-16
rectly result in a discharge that violates 17
any applicable provision’’; and 18
(E) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘the ap-19
plicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘any applica-20
ble provision’’; 21
(2) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘any applica-22
ble effluent limitations and other limitations, under 23
section 301 or 302 of this Act, standard of perform-24
ance under section 306 of this Act, or prohibition, 25 205
•HR 1 EH
effluent standard, or pretreatment standard under 1
section 307 of this Act, and with any other appro-2
priate requirement of State law set forth in such 3
certification, and’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable pro-4
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307, and 5
any such limitations or requirements’’; and 6
(3) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the applicable pro-8
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 are any 9
applicable effluent limitations and other limitations, under 10
section 301 or 302, standard of performance under section 11
306, prohibition, effluent standard, or pretreatment stand-12
ard under section 307, and requirement of State law im-13
plementing water quality criteria under section 303 nec-14
essary to support the designated use or uses of the receiv-15
ing navigable waters.’’. 16
SEC. 30003. FEDERAL GENERAL PERMITS. 17
Section 402(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-18
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(a)) is amended by adding at the 19
end the following: 20
‘‘(6)(A) The Administrator is authorized to issue gen-21
eral permits under this section for discharges of similar 22
types from similar sources. 23
‘‘(B) The Administrator may require submission of 24
a notice of intent to be covered under a general permit 25 206
•HR 1 EH
issued under this section, including additional information 1
that the Administrator determines necessary. 2
‘‘(C) If a general permit issued under this section will 3
expire and the Administrator decides not to issue a new 4
general permit for discharges similar to those covered by 5
the expiring general permit, the Administrator shall pub-6
lish in the Federal Register a notice of such decision at 7
least two years prior to the expiration of the general per-8
mit. 9
‘‘(D) If a general permit issued under this section 10
expires and the Administrator has not published a notice 11
in accordance with subparagraph (C), until such time as 12
the Administrator issues a new general permit for dis-13
charges similar to those covered by the expired general 14
permit, the Administrator shall— 15
‘‘(i) continue to apply the terms, conditions, 16
and requirements of the expired general permit to 17
any discharge that was covered by the expired gen-18
eral permit; and 19
‘‘(ii) apply such terms, conditions, and require-20
ments to any discharge that would have been cov-21
ered by the expired general permit (in accordance 22 207
•HR 1 EH
with any relevant requirements for such coverage) if 1
the discharge had occurred before such expiration.’’. 2
Passed the House of Representatives March 30,
2023.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1
AN ACT
To lower energy costs by increasing American en-
ergy production, exports, infrastructure, and crit-
ical minerals processing, by promoting trans-
parency, accountability, permitting, and produc-
tion of American resources, and by improving
water quality certification and energy projects,
and for other purposes.