Us Congress Senate Bill SB1456 Introduced / Bill

                    II 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION S. 1456 
To provide for certain energy development, permitting reforms, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MAY4, 2023 
Mr. B
ARRASSO(for himself, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. RISCH, Mr. LEE, Mr. DAINES, 
Ms. M
URKOWSKI, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. CASSIDY, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, and 
Mr. H
AWLEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To provide for certain energy development, permitting 
reforms, 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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Spur Permitting of Underdeveloped Resources Act’’ or 5
the ‘‘SPUR Act’’. 6
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 7
this Act is as follows: 8
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
TITLE I—OIL AND GAS LEASING AND PERMITTING 
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Subtitle A—Onshore and Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing 
Sec. 1101. Onshore oil and gas leasing. 
Sec. 1102. Offshore oil and gas leasing. 
Sec. 1103. Prohibition on delays. 
Subtitle B—Permitting of Federal Oil and Gas Minerals 
Sec. 1201. Term of application for permit to drill. 
Sec. 1202. Cooperative federalism in oil and gas permitting on available Fed-
eral land. 
Sec. 1203. Split estate permitting compliance. 
Sec. 1204. Fee-fee-fed permitting compliance. 
Sec. 1205. State and Tribal authority for hydraulic fracturing regulation. 
Subtitle C—Liquefied Natural Gas Exports 
Sec. 1301. Action on applications to export liquefied natural gas. 
Sec. 1302. Small scale LNG access. 
TITLE II—MINERAL LEASING AND PERMITTING 
Sec. 2001. Land use plan criteria under the Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act of 1976. 
Sec. 2002. Congressional approval of withdrawals under the Federal Land Pol-
icy and Management Act of 1976. 
Sec. 2003. Prohibition of certain moratoria. 
Sec. 2004. Prohibition of the establishment of new categories of Federal land 
designations by the heads of Federal land management agen-
cies. 
Sec. 2005. Coal leases on Federal land. 
Sec. 2006. Modification to definitions of critical material and critical mineral 
and critical mineral designation criteria. 
Sec. 2007. Permitting process improvements. 
TITLE III—FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION 
Sec. 3001. Tariff reforms, rate treatments, and rulemaking to ensure the reli-
ability and security of electric service and interstate natural 
gas service. 
Sec. 3002. Federal authorizations under the Natural Gas Act. 
Sec. 3003. Federal authorizations under section 216 of the Federal Power Act. 
Sec. 3004. Promoting interagency coordination for review of natural gas 
projects. 
Sec. 3005. Coordination process to protect electric reliability. 
Sec. 3006. Addressing inaction by Commission on certain electric rate filings. 
Sec. 3007. Tolling order reform for the Natural Gas Act. 
Sec. 3008. Tolling order reform for the Federal Power Act. 
Sec. 3009. De novo review of civil penalties under the Natural Gas Act. 
Sec. 3010. Extension of time to commence construction of certain hydropower 
projects. 
Sec. 3011. Judicial review. 
Sec. 3012. Approval for border-crossing facilities. 
TITLE IV—OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES 
Sec. 4001. Root and stem projects. 
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Sec. 4002. Consultation under certain land and resource management plans 
and land use plans. 
Sec. 4003. Renewal term of grazing permits or leases. 
Sec. 4004. Renewal of grazing permits and leases and certain actions during 
extreme natural events and disasters. 
Sec. 4005. Withdrawal of BLM proposed rule. 
TITLE I—OIL AND GAS LEASING 1
AND PERMITTING 2
Subtitle A—Onshore and Offshore 3
Oil and Gas Leasing 4
SEC. 1101. ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASING. 5
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
(1) O
NSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALE .—The 7
term ‘‘onshore oil and gas lease sale’’ means an oil 8
and gas lease sale conducted under section 17 of the 9
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226). 10
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 11
the Secretary of the Interior. 12
(b) O
NSHOREOIL ANDGASLEASESALES.— 13
(1) C
ONGRESSIONAL DECLARATION OF POL -14
ICY.—Consistent with the policy described in section 15
102(a)(12) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-16
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701(a)(12)) that the 17
Bureau of Land Management manage public land 18
‘‘in a manner which recognizes the Nation’s need for 19
domestic sources of minerals’’ from public land, 20
Congress declares that it is the policy of the United 21
States that it is in the national interest for the De-22
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partment of the Interior to move forward expedi-1
tiously to immediately resume quarterly onshore oil 2
and gas lease sales. 3
(2) R
EQUIREMENT TO IMMEDIATELY RESUME 4
ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALES .—The Sec-5
retary shall immediately resume quarterly onshore 6
oil and gas lease sales in accordance with section 7
17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 8
226(b)(1)(A)). 9
(3) S
TATUTORY LEASE TERMS .—During the 5- 10
year period beginning on the date of enactment of 11
this Act, in order to promote increased production 12
on Federal land, the Secretary may, on a determina-13
tion that it is in the national interest, reduce the ap-14
plicable royalty rate on individual leases issued 15
under an onshore oil and gas lease sale to not less 16
than 12.5 percent. 17
(4) A
PPROVED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN 18
REQUIREMENT.—In conducting a quarterly onshore 19
oil and gas lease sale in a State described in section 20
17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 21
226(b)(1)(A)), the Secretary— 22
(A) shall offer not less than 25 percent of 23
available parcels nominated for oil and gas de-24
velopment under the applicable resource man-25
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agement plan in effect for relevant Bureau of 1
Land Management resource management areas 2
within the applicable State; and 3
(B) shall not restrict the parcels offered to 4
1 Bureau of Land Management field office 5
within the applicable State unless all nominated 6
parcels are located within the same Bureau of 7
Land Management field office. 8
(5) R
EPLACEMENT SALES .—If, for any reason, 9
an onshore oil and gas lease sale for a calendar year 10
is canceled, delayed, or deferred or is paused due to 11
section 208 of Executive Order 14008 (42 U.S.C. 12
4321 note; relating to tackling the climate crisis at 13
home and abroad), the Secretary shall conduct a re-14
placement sale by not later than 180 days after the 15
date of the cancellation, delay, deferral, or pause, as 16
applicable. 17
(c) M
INERALLEASINGACTREFORMS.— 18
(1) E
XPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR OIL AND 19
GAS LEASING.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Section 17 of the Min-21
eral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is amended 22
by striking the section designation and all that 23
follows through the end of subsection (a) and 24
inserting the following: 25
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‘‘SEC. 17. LEASING OF OIL AND GAS PARCELS. 1
‘‘(a) L
EASINGAUTHORIZED.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any parcel of land subject 3
to disposition under this Act that is known or be-4
lieved to contain oil or gas deposits shall be made 5
available for leasing, subject to paragraphs (2) and 6
(3), by the Secretary of the Interior, or for National 7
Forest System land, the Secretary of Agriculture, as 8
applicable (referred to in this subsection as the ‘Sec-9
retary concerned’), not later than 18 months after 10
the date of receipt by the Secretary concerned of an 11
expression of interest in leasing the applicable parcel 12
of land available for disposition under this section, 13
in accordance with procedures established under 14
subsection (q) and for which the applicable fee was 15
paid under that subsection, if the Secretary con-16
cerned determines that the parcel of land is open to 17
oil or gas leasing under the approved resource man-18
agement plan applicable to the planning area in 19
which the parcel of land is located that is in effect 20
on the date on which the expression of interest was 21
submitted to the Secretary concerned (referred to in 22
this subsection as the ‘approved resource manage-23
ment plan’). 24
‘‘(2) R
ESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANS .— 25
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‘‘(A) LEASE TERMS AND CONDITIONS .—A 1
lease issued by the Secretary concerned under 2
this section with respect to an applicable parcel 3
of land made available for leasing under para-4
graph (1)— 5
‘‘(i) shall be subject to the terms and 6
conditions of the approved resource man-7
agement plan; and 8
‘‘(ii) may not require any stipulations 9
or mitigation requirements not included in 10
the approved resource management plan. 11
‘‘(B) E
FFECT OF AMENDMENT .—The fact 12
that the approved resource management plan is 13
being amended shall not prevent or delay the 14
Secretary concerned from making the applicable 15
parcel of land available for leasing if the other 16
requirements of this section have been met, as 17
determined by the Secretary concerned. 18
‘‘(C) E
FFECT OF LEASING DECISION .—A 19
lease sale conducted under the terms of an ap-20
proved resource management plan shall not be 21
considered to be an action that limits the choice 22
of reasonable alternatives for an environmental 23
review conducted pursuant to the National En-24
vironmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 25
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4321 et seq.) for the purpose of amending that 1
resource management plan.’’. 2
(B) R
EFUND OF EXPRESSION OF INTER -3
EST FEE.—Section 17(q) of the Mineral Leas-4
ing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(q)) is amended— 5
(i) by striking ‘‘Secretary’’ each place 6
it appears and inserting ‘‘Secretary of the 7
Interior’’; 8
(ii) in paragraph (1), by striking 9
‘‘nonrefundable’’; and 10
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(3) R
EFUND FOR NONWINNING BID .—If a per-13
son other than the person who submitted the expres-14
sion of interest is the highest responsible qualified 15
bidder for a parcel of land covered by the applicable 16
expression of interest in a lease sale conducted 17
under this section— 18
‘‘(A) as a condition of the issuance of the 19
lease, the person who is the highest responsible 20
qualified bidder shall pay to the Secretary of 21
the Interior an amount equal to the applicable 22
fee paid by the person who submitted the ex-23
pression of interest; and 24
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‘‘(B) not later than 10 days after the date 1
of the lease sale, the Secretary of the Interior 2
shall refund to the person who submitted the 3
expression of interest an amount equal to the 4
amount of the initial fee paid.’’. 5
(2) P
ROTESTED LEASE SALES .—Section 6
17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 7
226(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting after the sev-8
enth sentence the following: ‘‘The Secretary of the 9
Interior shall resolve any protest to a lease sale 10
within 60 days following such payment. Notwith-11
standing any other provision of law, if the Secretary 12
of the Interior denies a protest to a lease sale, any 13
lease subject to the protest shall not be subject to 14
further environmental review by the Secretary of the 15
Interior pursuant to the National Environmental 16
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).’’. 17
(3) E
FFECT OF LITIGATION.—Section 17 of the 18
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is amended by 19
adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(r) E
FFECT OFLITIGATION.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A civil action relating to an 22
environmental review under the Federal Land Policy 23
and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et 24
seq.), division A of subtitle III of title 54, United 25
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States Code (formerly known as the ‘National His-1
toric Preservation Act’), or the National Environ-2
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 3
with respect to a lease sale conducted under this sec-4
tion shall not— 5
‘‘(A) affect the validity of a lease issued 6
under the lease sale that is the subject of the 7
civil action; or 8
‘‘(B) except as provided in paragraph 9
(3)(B), cause a delay in the timelines estab-10
lished under subsection (p)(2) for the consider-11
ation of an application for permit to drill with 12
respect to a lease issued under the lease sale 13
that is the subject of the civil action. 14
‘‘(2) R
EMAND; PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS 15
FOR PERMIT TO DRILL .—If, in a civil action de-16
scribed in paragraph (1), the environmental review 17
for a lease sale is found by the applicable court to 18
violate the National Environmental Policy Act of 19
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.)— 20
‘‘(A) notwithstanding chapter 5 or 7 of 21
title 5, United States Code (commonly referred 22
to as the ‘Administrative Procedure Act’), the 23
applicable court shall not set aside the lease 24
sale and vacate the leases issued pursuant to 25
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the sale but instead remand the matter to the 1
Secretary of the Interior to resolve the viola-2
tion; and 3
‘‘(B) the Secretary of the Interior shall 4
continue to process all applicable applications 5
for permit to drill pursuant to subsection 6
(p)(2). 7
‘‘(3) N
OTICE.— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 9
days after the date on which a civil action de-10
scribed in paragraph (1) is filed, the Secretary 11
of the Interior shall notify the holder of any 12
lease issued under the lease sale that is the sub-13
ject of the civil action of the filing of the civil 14
action. 15
‘‘(B) T
IMELINE.—Not later than 90 days 16
after the date of receipt of a notice under sub-17
paragraph (A), the leaseholder may file with the 18
Secretary of the Interior a request to pause the 19
timeline under subsection (e)(1) with respect to 20
the term of the lease during any period in 21
which the civil action is pending.’’. 22
(4) L
EASE CANCELLATION .—Section 17 of the 23
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) (as amended 24
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by paragraph (3)) is amended by adding at the end 1
the following: 2
‘‘(s) L
EASECANCELLATION.—A lease issued under 3
this section shall be considered to be valid and not subject 4
to cancellation by the Secretary of the Interior for any 5
reason, except for— 6
‘‘(1) the express written agreement to the can-7
cellation by the lessee; or 8
‘‘(2) a determination by the Secretary of the In-9
terior that cancellation is appropriate in accordance 10
with section 3108.3 of title 43, Code of Federal Reg-11
ulations (as in effect on the date of enactment of 12
this subsection), subject to the limitation that a 13
lease may not be determined to be improperly issued 14
under that section based on a finding by a Federal 15
court that the environmental review for the lease 16
sale pursuant to which the lease was issued was in 17
violation of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-18
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), division 19
A of subtitle III of title 54, United States Code (for-20
merly known as the ‘National Historic Preservation 21
Act’), or the National Environmental Policy Act of 22
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).’’. 23
(5) L
IMITATIONS FOR FILING OIL AND GAS 24
CONTESTS.—Section 42 of the Mineral Leasing Act 25
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(30 U.S.C. 226–2) is amended by striking the sec-1
tion designation and all that follows through the pe-2
riod at the end of the second sentence, and inserting 3
the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 42. LIMITATIONS FOR FILING OIL AND GAS CON-5
TESTS. 6
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding chapter 5 or 7 7
of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as 8
the ‘Administrative Procedure Act’), no action contesting 9
a decision of the Secretary involving any oil and gas lease 10
sale, individual lease, or individual permit shall be main-11
tained unless the action is commenced or taken by not 12
later than 60 days after the date on which the final deci-13
sion of the Secretary relating to the action was made. 14
‘‘(b) J
URISDICTION.—An action contesting a decision 15
of the Secretary may only be commenced— 16
‘‘(1) for an individual lease or permit, in the 17
district court of the United States for the district in 18
which the property, or some part thereof, is located; 19
and 20
‘‘(2) for a lease sale, in a district court of the 21
United States in the State in which the sale oc-22
curred. 23
‘‘(c) R
EMOVAL.—A defendant or defendant inter-24
venor in an action challenging a lease sale, lease, or permit 25
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in multiple states may remove the action to the district 1
court of the United States for the district in which the 2
property is located pursuant to section 1441(c) of title 28, 3
United States Code.’’. 4
SEC. 1102. OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASING. 5
(a) 2023–2028 O
UTERCONTINENTALSHELFOIL 6
ANDGASLEASINGPROGRAM.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 8
provision of law, not later than September 30, 2023, 9
the Secretary of the Interior (referred to in this sec-10
tion as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall approve a final 2023– 11
2028 oil and gas leasing program under section 18 12
of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 13
U.S.C. 1344). 14
(2) W
AIVER.—In order to meet the deadline de-15
scribed in paragraph (1), the Secretary may— 16
(A) limit any comment periods required 17
under subsections (c) and (d) of section 18 of 18
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 19
U.S.C. 1344); and 20
(B) waive any other requirements under 21
that section that would delay final approval of 22
the oil and gas leasing program described in 23
paragraph (1). 24
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(3) REQUIREMENTS.—The oil and gas leasing 1
program described in paragraph (1) shall include the 2
following: 3
(A) A minimum of 2 Gulf of Mexico re-4
gion-wide lease sales each year in the following 5
planning areas of the Gulf of Mexico region, as 6
described in the final program decision docu-7
ment entitled ‘‘2017–2020 Outer Continental 8
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Pro-9
gram (November 2016)’’: 10
(i) The Central Gulf of Mexico Plan-11
ning Area. 12
(ii) The Western Gulf of Mexico Plan-13
ning Area. 14
(B) At least 1 region-wide lease sale in the 15
Alaska regions of the outer Continental Shelf, 16
as described in the final program decision docu-17
ment entitled ‘‘2017–2020 Outer Continental 18
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Pro-19
gram (November 2016)’’. 20
(4) S
TATUTORY LEASE TERMS .—During the 5- 21
year period beginning on the date of enactment of 22
this Act, in order to promote increased production 23
on the outer Continental Shelf, the Secretary may, 24
on a determination that it is in the national interest, 25
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reduce the applicable royalty rate on individual oil 1
and gas leases issued under the Outer Continental 2
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) to not less 3
than 12.5 percent. 4
(b) S
UBSEQUENTOFFSHORELEASINGPROGRAMS.— 5
Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 6
U.S.C. 1344) is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a), in the first sentence of the 8
matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘sub-9
sections (c) and (d) of this section’’ and inserting 10
‘‘subsections (c) through (f)’’; 11
(2) by redesignating subsections (f) through (i) 12
as subsections (g) through (j), respectively; 13
(3) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(f) S
UBSEQUENTLEASINGPROGRAMS.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 36 months 17
after conducting the first lease sale under an oil and 18
gas leasing program prepared pursuant to this sec-19
tion, the Secretary shall begin preparing the subse-20
quent oil and gas leasing program under this sec-21
tion. 22
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—Each subsequent oil and 23
gas leasing program under this section— 24
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‘‘(A) shall be approved not later than 180 1
days before the expiration of the previous oil 2
and gas leasing program; and 3
‘‘(B) shall contain a minimum of 5 lease 4
sales.’’; and 5
(4) by conforming the margin of subsection (j) 6
(as so redesignated) to the margin of subsection (i) 7
(as so redesignated). 8
(c) L
EASE ORPERMITCANCELLATION.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 5(a)(2) of the Outer 10
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1334(a)(2)) 11
is amended— 12
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 13
(A), by striking ‘‘any lease or permit—’’ and all 14
that follows through the end of subparagraph 15
(B) and inserting the following: ‘‘any lease or 16
permit— 17
‘‘(A) that the lease or permit shall be con-18
sidered to be valid and not subject to cancella-19
tion by the Secretary for any reason, except 20
for— 21
‘‘(i) the express written agreement to 22
the cancellation by the lessee or permittee; 23
or 24
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‘‘(ii) a determination by the Secretary 1
that cancellation is appropriate (including 2
cancellation under subsection (c), section 3
8(o), section 11(c)(1), and subsections 4
(h)(2)(C) and (j) of section 25), in accord-5
ance with the regulations prescribed under 6
this section, subject to the limitation that 7
a lease or permit may not be cancelled by 8
the Secretary based on a finding by a Fed-9
eral court that the environmental review 10
for the lease sale pursuant to which the 11
lease was issued was in violation of the 12
National Environmental Policy Act of 13
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.); and’’; and 14
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 15
subparagraph (B). 16
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 17
(A) Section 11(c)(1) of the Outer Conti-18
nental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1340(c)(1)) 19
is amended— 20
(i) in the fourth sentence, by striking 21
‘‘result in any condition described in sec-22
tion 5(a)(2)(A)(i) of this Act’’ and insert-23
ing ‘‘probably cause serious harm or dam-24
age to life (including fish and other aquatic 25
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life), to property, to any mineral (in areas 1
leased or not leased), to the national secu-2
rity or defense, or to the marine, coastal, 3
or human environment’’; and 4
(ii) in the fifth sentence— 5
(I) by striking ‘‘, subject to sec-6
tion 5(a)(2)(B) of this Act,’’; and 7
(II) by striking ‘‘section 8
5(a)(2)(C) (i) or (ii) of this Act’’ and 9
inserting ‘‘section 5(a)(2)(B)’’. 10
(B) Section 25(h)(2)(C) of the Outer Con-11
tinental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 12
1351(h)(2)(C)) is amended, in the first sen-13
tence, by striking ‘‘section 5(a)(2)(C) of this 14
Act’’ and inserting ‘‘section 5(a)(2)(B)’’. 15
(d) E
FFECT OFLITIGATION.—Section 8 of the Outer 16
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1337) is amended 17
by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(q) E
FFECT OFLITIGATION.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A civil action relating to an 20
environmental review under the National Environ-21
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 22
with respect to a lease sale conducted under this sec-23
tion shall not— 24
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•S 1456 IS
‘‘(A) affect the validity of a lease issued 1
under the lease sale that is the subject of the 2
civil action; or 3
‘‘(B) except as provided in paragraph 4
(3)(B), cause a delay in the timelines for the 5
consideration of an application for permit to 6
drill with respect to a lease issued under the 7
lease sale that is the subject of the civil action. 8
‘‘(2) R
EMAND; PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS 9
FOR PERMIT TO DRILL .—If, in a civil action de-10
scribed in paragraph (1), the environmental review 11
for a lease sale is found by the applicable court to 12
violate the National Environmental Policy Act of 13
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.)— 14
‘‘(A) notwithstanding chapter 5 or 7 of 15
title 5, United States Code (commonly referred 16
to as the ‘Administrative Procedures Act’), the 17
applicable court shall not set aside the lease 18
sale and vacate the leases issued pursuant to 19
the sale but instead remand the matter to the 20
Secretary of the Interior to resolve the viola-21
tion; and 22
‘‘(B) the Secretary shall continue to proc-23
ess all applicable applications for permit to drill 24
in accordance with this Act. 25
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‘‘(3) NOTICE.— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 2
days after the date on which a civil action de-3
scribed in paragraph (1) is filed, the Secretary 4
shall notify the holder of any lease issued under 5
the lease sale that is the subject of the civil ac-6
tion of the filing of the civil action. 7
‘‘(B) T
IMELINE.—Not later than 90 days 8
after the date of receipt of a notice under sub-9
paragraph (A), the leaseholder may file with the 10
Secretary a request to pause the timeline with 11
respect to the term of the lease during any pe-12
riod in which the civil action is pending.’’. 13
SEC. 1103. PROHIBITION ON DELAYS. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The President shall not, through 15
Executive order or any other administrative procedure, 16
pause, cancel, delay, defer, or otherwise impede or cir-17
cumvent the Federal energy mineral leasing processes 18
under the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) 19
or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 20
1331 et seq.) or a related rulemaking process required by 21
subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, 22
United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Administra-23
tive Procedure Act’’), without congressional approval. 24
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(b) REBUTTABLEPRESUMPTION.—There shall be a 1
rebuttable presumption that any attempt by the President 2
to pause, cancel, delay, defer, or otherwise impede or cir-3
cumvent any Federal energy mineral leasing or permitting 4
process under the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 5
et seq.) or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 6
U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) or a related rulemaking process re-7
quired by subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of 8
title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Ad-9
ministrative Procedure Act’’), without congressional ap-10
proval, is a violation of the applicable law. 11
Subtitle B—Permitting of Federal 12
Oil and Gas Minerals 13
SEC. 1201. TERM OF APPLICATION FOR PERMIT TO DRILL. 14
Section 17(p) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 15
226(p)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(4) T
ERM.—An application for permit to drill 17
approved under this subsection shall be valid for the 18
4-year period beginning on the date of the ap-19
proval.’’. 20
SEC. 1202. COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM IN OIL AND GAS 21
PERMITTING ON AVAILABLE FEDERAL LAND. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Mineral Leasing Act (30 23
U.S.C. 181 et seq.) is amended— 24
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(1) by redesignating section 44 as section 46; 1
and 2
(2) by inserting after section 43 the following: 3
‘‘SEC. 44. COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM IN OIL AND GAS PER-4
MITTING ON AVAILABLE FEDERAL LAND. 5
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
‘‘(1) APD.—The term ‘APD’ means a permit— 7
‘‘(A) that grants authority to drill for oil 8
and gas; and 9
‘‘(B) for which an application has been re-10
ceived that includes— 11
‘‘(i) a drilling plan; and 12
‘‘(ii) evidence of bond coverage. 13
‘‘(2) A
VAILABLE FEDERAL LAND .—The term 14
‘available Federal land’ means any Federal land 15
that— 16
‘‘(A) is located within the boundaries of a 17
State; 18
‘‘(B) is not held by the United States in 19
trust for the benefit of a federally recognized 20
Indian Tribe or a member of a federally recog-21
nized Indian Tribe; 22
‘‘(C) is not a unit of the National Park 23
System; 24
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‘‘(D) is not a unit of the National Wildlife 1
Refuge System, other than a unit of the Na-2
tional Wildlife Refuge System for which oil and 3
gas drilling is allowed under law; 4
‘‘(E) is not a congressionally approved wil-5
derness area under the Wilderness Act (16 6
U.S.C. 1131 et seq.); and 7
‘‘(F) has been identified as land available 8
for lease, or has been leased, for the explo-9
ration, development, and production of oil and 10
gas— 11
‘‘(i) by the Bureau of Land Manage-12
ment under— 13
‘‘(I) a resource management plan 14
under the Federal Land Policy and 15
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 16
1701 et seq.); or 17
‘‘(II) an integrated activity plan 18
with respect to the National Petro-19
leum Reserve-Alaska; or 20
‘‘(ii) by the Forest Service under a 21
National Forest management plan under 22
the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-23
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 24
1600 et seq.). 25
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‘‘(3) DRILLING PLAN.—The term ‘drilling plan’ 1
means a plan described in section 3162.3–1(e) of 2
title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor 3
regulation). 4
‘‘(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 5
the Secretary of the Interior. 6
‘‘(5) S
TATE APPLICANT.—The term ‘State ap-7
plicant’ means a State that submits an application 8
under subsection (c). 9
‘‘(6) S
TATE PROGRAM.—The term ‘State pro-10
gram’ means a program in a State under which the 11
State may— 12
‘‘(A) issue APDs, approve drilling plans, 13
approve sundry notices, approve suspensions of 14
operations or production, or grant rights-of-way 15
on available Federal land; and 16
‘‘(B) impose sanctions for violations of 17
State laws, regulations, or any condition of an 18
issued APD or approved drilling plan, as appli-19
cable. 20
‘‘(7) S
UNDRY NOTICE.—The term ‘sundry no-21
tice’ means a written request submitted pursuant to 22
section 3173.10 of title 43, Code of Federal Regula-23
tions (or successor regulations). 24
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‘‘(8) SUSPENSION OF OPERATIONS OR PRODUC -1
TION.—The term ‘suspension of operations or pro-2
duction’ means a suspension of operations or pro-3
duction described in section 17 or section 39. 4
‘‘(b) A
UTHORIZATIONS.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—On receipt of an applica-6
tion under subsection (c), the Secretary may dele-7
gate to a State exclusive authority— 8
‘‘(A) to issue an APD on available Federal 9
land; 10
‘‘(B) to approve drilling plans on available 11
Federal land; 12
‘‘(C) to approve sundry notices relating to 13
work performed on available Federal land; 14
‘‘(D) to approve suspensions of operations 15
or production; and 16
‘‘(E) to grant rights-of-way in accordance 17
with paragraph (3). 18
‘‘(2) I
NSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT .—On re-19
quest of a State for which authority is delegated 20
under paragraph (1), the authority delegated may 21
include the authority to inspect and enforce an 22
APD, drilling plan, or right-of-way, as applicable. 23
‘‘(3) R
IGHTS-OF-WAY.—The authority to grant 24
a right-of-way delegated to a State under paragraph 25
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(1)(E) shall be the authority of the Secretary or the 1
Secretary of Agriculture, as applicable, under section 2
501 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 3
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1761) and section 28 of this 4
Act, to grant, issue, or renew rights-of-way over, 5
upon, under, or through available Federal land. 6
‘‘(4) E
FFECT OF FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL 7
REVIEWS.—A State for which authority is delegated 8
under paragraph (1) shall continue processing appli-9
cations for an APD, applications for approval of a 10
drilling plan, applications for approval of a sundry 11
notice, and applications to grant a right-of-way, re-12
gardless of whether the Federal Government is car-13
rying out any review related to the APD, drilling 14
plan, sundry notice, or right-of-way under the Na-15
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 16
4321 et seq.) or the Endangered Species Act of 17
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 18
‘‘(5) E
FFECT OF STATE ENFORCEMENT AC -19
TION.—If a State for which authority is delegated 20
under paragraph (1) imposes a sanction for violating 21
a condition of an issued APD or approved drilling 22
plan, the Secretary may not issue a penalty for the 23
same violation under section 109 of the Federal Oil 24
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and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 1
U.S.C. 1719). 2
‘‘(c) S
TATEAPPLICATIONPROCESS.— 3
‘‘(1) S
UBMISSION OF APPLICATION .—A State 4
seeking a delegation of authority under subpara-5
graph (A), (B), (C), (D), or (E) of subsection (b)(1) 6
shall submit to the Secretary an application at such 7
time, in such manner, and containing such informa-8
tion as the Secretary may require, including a de-9
scription of the State program that the State pro-10
poses to administer under State law. 11
‘‘(2) D
EADLINE FOR APPROVAL OR DIS -12
APPROVAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date 13
on which an application under paragraph (1) is re-14
ceived, the Secretary shall approve or disapprove the 15
application. 16
‘‘(3) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR APPROVAL .— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may 18
approve an application received under para-19
graph (1) only if the Secretary determines 20
that— 21
‘‘(i) the State applicant would be at 22
least as effective as the Secretary in 23
issuing APDs, approving drilling plans, ap-24
proving sundry notices, approving suspen-25
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sions of operations or production, or grant-1
ing rights-of-way, as applicable; 2
‘‘(ii) the State program of the State 3
applicant— 4
‘‘(I) complies with this Act; and 5
‘‘(II) provides for the termination 6
or modification of an issued APD, ap-7
proved drilling plan, approved sundry 8
notice, approved suspension of oper-9
ations or production, or granted right- 10
of-way, as applicable, for cause, in-11
cluding for— 12
‘‘(aa) the violation of any 13
condition of the issued APD, ap-14
proved drilling plan, approved 15
sundry notice, approved suspen-16
sion of operations or production, 17
or granted right-of-way; 18
‘‘(bb) obtaining the issued 19
APD, approved drilling plan, ap-20
proved sundry notice, approved 21
suspension of operations or pro-22
duction, or granted right-of-way 23
by misrepresentation; or 24
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‘‘(cc) failure to fully disclose 1
in the application all relevant 2
facts; 3
‘‘(iii) the State applicant has suffi-4
cient administrative and technical per-5
sonnel and sufficient funding to carry out 6
the State program; and 7
‘‘(iv) approval of the application 8
would not result in decreased royalty pay-9
ments owed to the United States under 10
subsection (a) of section 35. 11
‘‘(B) M
EMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING .— 12
With respect to a State applicant seeking au-13
thority under subsection (b)(2) to inspect and 14
enforce APDs, drilling plans, or rights-of-way, 15
as applicable, before approving the application 16
of the State applicant, the Secretary shall enter 17
into a memorandum of understanding with the 18
State applicant under paragraph (6) that de-19
scribes the Federal and State responsibilities 20
with respect to the inspection and enforcement. 21
‘‘(C) P
UBLIC NOTICE.—Before approving 22
an application received under paragraph (1), 23
the Secretary shall— 24
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‘‘(i) provide public notice of the appli-1
cation; 2
‘‘(ii) solicit public comment for the 3
application; and 4
‘‘(iii) hold a public hearing for the ap-5
plication in the State. 6
‘‘(4) D
ISAPPROVAL.—If the Secretary dis-7
approves an application submitted under paragraph 8
(1), the Secretary shall provide to the State appli-9
cant written notification of— 10
‘‘(A) the reasons for the disapproval, in-11
cluding any information, data, or analysis on 12
which the disapproval is based; and 13
‘‘(B) any revisions or modifications nec-14
essary to obtain approval. 15
‘‘(5) R
ESUBMITTAL OF APPLICATION .—A State 16
may resubmit an application under paragraph (1) at 17
any time. 18
‘‘(6) S
TATE MEMORANDA OF UNDER -19
STANDING.—Before a State submits an application 20
under paragraph (1), the Secretary, on request of 21
the State, may enter into a memorandum of under-22
standing with the State regarding the proposed 23
State program— 24
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‘‘(A) to describe the Federal and State re-1
sponsibilities for oil and gas regulations; 2
‘‘(B) to provide technical assistance; and 3
‘‘(C) to share best management practices. 4
‘‘(d) A
DMINISTRATIVEFEES FORAPDS.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State for which authority 6
has been delegated under subsection (b)(1)(A) may 7
collect a fee for each application for an APD that 8
is submitted to the State. 9
‘‘(2) N
O COLLECTION OF FEE BY SEC -10
RETARY.—The Secretary may not collect a fee from 11
the applicant or from the State for an application 12
for an APD that is submitted to a State for which 13
authority has been delegated under subsection 14
(b)(1)(A). 15
‘‘(3) U
SE.—A State shall use 100 percent of 16
the fees collected under this subsection for the ad-17
ministration of the approved State program of the 18
State. 19
‘‘(e) V
OLUNTARYTERMINATION OFAUTHORITY.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—After providing written no-21
tice to the Secretary, a State may voluntarily termi-22
nate any authority delegated to the State under sub-23
section (b)(1) on expiration of the 60-day period be-24
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•S 1456 IS
ginning on the date on which the Secretary receives 1
the written notice. 2
‘‘(2) R
ESUMPTION BY SECRETARY .—On termi-3
nation of the authority delegated to a State under 4
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall resume any ac-5
tivities for which authority was delegated to the 6
State under subsection (b)(1). 7
‘‘(f) A
PPEAL OFDENIAL OFAPPLICATION.—If a 8
State for which the Secretary has delegated authority 9
under subsection (b)(1) denies an application submitted 10
under subsection (c)(1), the applicant may appeal the de-11
cision to the Office of Hearings and Appeals of the De-12
partment of the Interior. 13
‘‘(g) F
EDERALADMINISTRATION OF STATEPRO-14
GRAM.— 15
‘‘(1) N
OTIFICATION.—If the Secretary has rea-16
son to believe that a State is not administering or 17
enforcing an approved State program, the Secretary 18
shall notify the relevant State regulatory authority 19
of any possible deficiencies. 20
‘‘(2) S
TATE RESPONSE.—Not later than 30 21
days after the date on which a State receives notifi-22
cation of a possible deficiency under paragraph (1), 23
the State shall— 24
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‘‘(A) take appropriate action to correct the 1
possible deficiency; and 2
‘‘(B) notify the Secretary of the action in 3
writing. 4
‘‘(3) D
ETERMINATION.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—On expiration of the 6
30-day period described in paragraph (2), the 7
Secretary shall issue public notice of any deter-8
mination of the Secretary that— 9
‘‘(i) a violation of all or any part of an 10
approved State program has resulted from 11
a failure of the State to administer or en-12
force the approved State program of the 13
State; or 14
‘‘(ii) the State has not demonstrated 15
the capability and intent of the State to 16
administer or enforce the State program of 17
the State. 18
‘‘(B) A
PPEAL.—A State may appeal the 19
determination of the Secretary under subpara-20
graph (A) in the applicable United States Dis-21
trict Court. 22
‘‘(C) R
ESUMPTION BY SECRETARY PEND -23
ING APPEAL.—The Secretary may not resume 24
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activities under paragraph (4) if an appeal 1
under subparagraph (B) is pending. 2
‘‘(4) R
ESUMPTION BY SECRETARY .—Except as 3
provided in paragraph (3)(C), if the Secretary has 4
made a determination under paragraph (3)(A), the 5
Secretary shall resume any activities for which au-6
thority was delegated to the State during the pe-7
riod— 8
‘‘(A) beginning on the date on which the 9
Secretary issues the public notice under para-10
graph (3)(A); and 11
‘‘(B) ending on the date on which the Sec-12
retary determines that the State may admin-13
ister or enforce, as applicable, the approved 14
State program of the State. 15
‘‘(5) S
TANDING.—A State with an approved 16
regulatory program shall have standing to sue the 17
Secretary for any action taken under this sub-18
section.’’. 19
(b) E
XISTINGAUTHORITIES.—Section 390(a) of the 20
Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15942(a)) is 21
amended— 22
(1) by striking ‘‘Action by the Secretary’’ and 23
inserting ‘‘The Secretary’’; 24
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(2) by striking ‘‘with respect to any of the ac-1
tivities described in subsection (b) shall be subject to 2
a rebuttable presumption that the use of’’ and in-3
serting ‘‘shall apply’’; and 4
(3) by striking ‘‘would apply if the activity’’ and 5
inserting ‘‘for each action described in subsection (b) 6
if the action’’. 7
SEC. 1203. SPLIT ESTATE PERMITTING COMPLIANCE. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding the Mineral 9
Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), the Federal Oil and 10
Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 11
et seq.), or subpart 3162 of title 43, Code of Federal Reg-12
ulations (or successor regulations), but subject to any 13
State or Tribal requirements and subsection (c), the Sec-14
retary of the Interior shall not require a permit to drill 15
for an oil and gas lease under the Mineral Leasing Act 16
(30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) for an action occurring within an 17
oil and gas drilling or spacing unit if— 18
(1) less than 50 percent of the minerals within 19
the oil and gas drilling or spacing unit are minerals 20
owned by the Federal Government; and 21
(2) the Federal Government does not own or 22
lease the surface estate within the area directly im-23
pacted by the action. 24
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(b) NOTIFICATION.—For each State permit to drill 1
or drilling plan that would impact or extract oil and gas 2
owned by the Federal Government— 3
(1) each lessee, or designee of a lessee, shall— 4
(A) notify the Secretary of the Interior of 5
the submission of a State application for a per-6
mit to drill or drilling plan on submission of the 7
application; and 8
(B) provide a copy of the application de-9
scribed in subparagraph (A) to the Secretary of 10
the Interior not later than 5 days after the date 11
on which the permit or plan is submitted; and 12
(2) each lessee, designee of a lessee, or applica-13
ble State shall notify the Secretary of the Interior of 14
the approved State permit to drill or drilling plan 15
not later than 45 days after the date on which the 16
permit or plan is approved. 17
(c) N
ONAPPLICABILITY TO INDIANLANDS.—Sub-18
section (a) shall not apply to Indian lands (as defined in 19
section 3 of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management 20
Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1702)). 21
(d) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this section affects— 22
(1) other authorities of the Secretary of the In-23
terior under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Man-24
agement Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 25
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(2) the amount of royalties due to the Federal 1
Government from the production of the Federal min-2
erals within the oil and gas drilling or spacing unit. 3
SEC. 1204. FEE-FEE-FED PERMITTING COMPLIANCE. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding the Mineral 5
Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), the Federal Oil and 6
Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 7
et seq.), or subpart 3162 of title 43, Code of Federal Reg-8
ulations (or successor regulations), the Secretary of the 9
Interior shall issue a categorical exclusion pursuant to sec-10
tion 390 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 11
15942) for an application for permit to drill into and 12
produce Federal minerals from a well pad constructed on 13
entirely non-Federal lands. 14
(b) A
PPLICATION FORPERMITTODRILL.—Section 15
17(g) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(g)) is 16
amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘For an ap-17
plication for a permit to drill into and produce Federal 18
minerals from a well pad constructed on entirely non-Fed-19
eral lands, the Secretary shall limit review pursuant to the 20
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 21
4321 et seq.), section 7 of the Endangered Species Act 22
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536), and section 306108 of title 54, 23
United States Code, only to the approval of the permit. 24
The Secretary shall have no authority to require a bond 25
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to protect non-Federal lands, to enter non-Federal lands 1
without the consent of the applicable landowner, or to re-2
quire mitigation of surface disturbances on non-Federal 3
lands.’’. 4
SEC. 1205. STATE AND TRIBAL AUTHORITY FOR HYDRAULIC 5
FRACTURING REGULATION. 6
The Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) is 7
amended by inserting after section 44 (as added by section 8
1202(a)(2)) the following: 9
‘‘SEC. 45. STATE AND TRIBAL AUTHORITY FOR HYDRAULIC 10
FRACTURING REGULATION. 11
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
‘‘(1) H
YDRAULIC FRACTURING .—The term ‘hy-13
draulic fracturing’ means the process of creating 14
small cracks or fractures in underground geological 15
formations for well stimulation purposes of bringing 16
hydrocarbons into the wellbore and to the surface 17
for capture. 18
‘‘(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 19
the Secretary of the Interior. 20
‘‘(b) E
NFORCEMENT OF FEDERALREGULATIONS.— 21
The Secretary shall not enforce any Federal regulation, 22
guidance, or permit requirement regarding hydraulic frac-23
turing relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activi-24
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ties on or under any land in any State that has regula-1
tions, guidance, or permit requirements for that activity. 2
‘‘(c) S
TATEAUTHORITY.—The Secretary shall defer 3
to State regulations, guidance, and permit requirements 4
for all activities regarding hydraulic fracturing relating to 5
oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on Federal 6
land. 7
‘‘(d) T
RANSPARENCY OFSTATEREGULATIONS.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each State shall submit to 9
the Bureau of Land Management a copy of the reg-10
ulations of the State that apply to hydraulic frac-11
turing operations on Federal land, including the reg-12
ulations that require disclosure of chemicals used in 13
hydraulic fracturing operations. 14
‘‘(2) A
VAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall make 15
available to the public on the website of the Sec-16
retary the regulations submitted under paragraph 17
(1). 18
‘‘(e) T
RIBALAUTHORITY ON TRUSTLAND.—The 19
Secretary shall not enforce any Federal regulation, guid-20
ance, or permit requirement with respect to hydraulic frac-21
turing on any land held in trust or restricted status for 22
the benefit of a federally recognized Indian Tribe or a 23
member of a federally recognized Indian Tribe, except 24
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with the express consent of the beneficiary on whose behalf 1
the land is held in trust or restricted status.’’. 2
Subtitle C—Liquefied Natural Gas 3
Exports 4
SEC. 1301. ACTION ON APPLICATIONS TO EXPORT LIQUE-5
FIED NATURAL GAS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) C
OVERED APPLICATION .—The term ‘‘cov-8
ered application’’ means an application submitted 9
with respect to a covered facility for an authoriza-10
tion to export natural gas under section 3(a) of the 11
Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(a)). 12
(2) C
OVERED FACILITY.—The term ‘‘covered 13
facility’’ means a liquefied natural gas export facility 14
for which a proposal to site, construct, expand, or 15
operate is required to be approved by— 16
(A) the Secretary; and 17
(B)(i) the Federal Energy Regulatory 18
Commission; or 19
(ii) the Maritime Administration. 20
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 21
the Secretary of Energy. 22
(b) D
ECISIONDEADLINE.—The Secretary shall issue 23
a final decision on a covered application not later than 24
45 days after the later of— 25
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(1) the date on which each review required 1
under the National Environmental Policy Act of 2
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with respect to the 3
siting, construction, expansion, or operation of the 4
covered facility that is the subject of the covered ap-5
plication is concluded in accordance with subsection 6
(c); and 7
(2) the date of enactment of this Act. 8
(c) C
ONCLUSION OFREVIEW.—For purposes of sub-9
section (b), a review required under the National Environ-10
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall 11
be concluded on the date on which the lead agency, as 12
applicable— 13
(1) publishes a notice of availability of the final 14
environmental impact statement, for a covered facil-15
ity requiring an environmental impact statement; 16
(2) publishes a notice of availability of the envi-17
ronmental assessment and associated finding of no 18
significant impact, for a covered facility for which an 19
environmental assessment has been prepared; or 20
(3) determines that the covered application is 21
eligible for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the 22
implementing regulations of that Act. 23
(d) U
NTIMELYFINALDECISION.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary fails to 1
issue a final decision under subsection (b) by the ap-2
plicable date required under that subsection, the cov-3
ered application shall be considered approved, and 4
the environmental review issued by the lead agency 5
under subsection (c) shall be considered sufficient to 6
satisfy all requirements of the National Environ-7
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 8
(2) F
INAL AGENCY ACTION .—A determination 9
under paragraph (1) shall be considered to be a final 10
agency action. 11
(e) J
UDICIALREVIEW.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except for review in the Su-13
preme Court of the United States, the court of ap-14
peals of the United States for the circuit in which 15
a covered facility is, or will be, located pursuant to 16
a covered application shall have original and exclu-17
sive jurisdiction over any civil action for the review 18
of an order issued by the Secretary with respect to 19
the covered application. 20
(2) E
XPEDITED REVIEW .—The applicable 21
United States Court of Appeals shall— 22
(A) set any civil action brought under this 23
subsection for expedited review; and 24
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(B) set the action on the docket as soon as 1
practicable after the filing date of the initial 2
pleading. 3
(3) T
RANSFER OF EXISTING ACTIONS .—In the 4
case of a covered application for which a petition for 5
review has been filed as of the date of enactment of 6
this Act, the petition shall be— 7
(A) on a motion by the applicant, trans-8
ferred to the court of appeals of the United 9
States in which the covered facility that is the 10
subject of the covered application is, or will be, 11
located; and 12
(B) adjudicated in accordance with this 13
subsection. 14
SEC. 1302. SMALL SCALE LNG ACCESS. 15
Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) 16
is amended by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 17
following: 18
‘‘(c) E
XPEDITEDAPPLICATION AND APPROVAL 19
P
ROCESS.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of subsection 21
(a), the following actions shall be deemed to be con-22
sistent with the public interest, and applications for 23
each of the following actions shall be granted with-24
out modification or delay: 25
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‘‘(A) The importation of natural gas re-1
ferred to in subsection (b). 2
‘‘(B) The exportation of natural gas in a 3
volume of not more than 51,750,000,000 cubic 4
feet per year, subject to the last sentence of 5
subsection (a). 6
‘‘(C) The exportation of natural gas to a 7
nation with which there is in effect a free trade 8
agreement requiring national treatment for 9
trade in natural gas. 10
‘‘(2) E
XCLUSION.—Subparagraphs (B) and (C) 11
of paragraph (1) shall not apply to any nation sub-12
ject to sanctions imposed by the United States.’’. 13
TITLE II—MINERAL LEASING 14
AND PERMITTING 15
SEC. 2001. LAND USE PLAN CRITERIA UNDER THE FEDERAL 16
LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 17
1976. 18
Section 202(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Man-19
agement Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712(c)) is amended— 20
(1) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 21
end; 22
(2) by redesignating paragraph (9) as para-23
graph (10); and 24
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(3) by inserting after paragraph (8) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(9)(A) review a mineral resource assessment 3
applicable to the public lands covered by the land 4
use plan that was completed during the 10-year pe-5
riod ending on the effective date of the land use 6
plan; and 7
‘‘(B) in consultation with the Secretary of En-8
ergy and the Secretary of Defense, determine the 9
significance of the minerals located within the public 10
lands to energy security, national security, and eco-11
nomic security, in accordance with subparagraph 12
(A); and’’. 13
SEC. 2002. CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL OF WITHDRAWALS 14
UNDER THE FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND 15
MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1976. 16
Section 204(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and 17
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1714(c)(1)) is 18
amended in the second sentence by striking ‘‘no later than 19
its effective date’’ and all that follows through ‘‘approve 20
the withdrawal’’ and inserting ‘‘not later than 90 days be-21
fore the effective date of the withdrawal and the with-22
drawal shall terminate and become ineffective if Congress 23
has not enacted a joint resolution approving the with-24
drawal prior to the effective date of the withdrawal.’’. 25
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SEC. 2003. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN MORATORIA. 1
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 2
(1) M
INERAL.—The term ‘‘mineral’’ means any 3
mineral subject to sections 2319 through 2344 of 4
the Revised Statutes (commonly known as the ‘‘Min-5
ing Law of 1872’’) (30 U.S.C. 22 et seq.) and any 6
mineral located on lands acquired by the United 7
States (as defined in section 2 of the Mineral Leas-8
ing Act for Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 351)). 9
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 10
the Secretary of the Interior. 11
(b) P
ROHIBITION OF CERTAINMORATORIA.—The 12
Secretary may not declare a moratorium on issuing leases, 13
claims, or permits on Federal land, including land on the 14
outer Continental Shelf, for the mining of minerals or re-15
lated activities. 16
(c) P
ROHIBITION ON RESCISSION OF CERTAIN 17
L
EASES, PERMITS, ORCLAIMS.—The President or the 18
Secretary or the Secretary of Agriculture, as applicable, 19
may not rescind any lease, permit, or claim for the mining 20
and extraction of any mineral on National Forest System 21
land or Bureau of Land Management land unless— 22
(1) specifically authorized by an Act of Con-23
gress; or 24
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(2) the lessee, permittee, or claimant fails to 1
comply with a provision of the applicable lease, per-2
mit, or claim. 3
SEC. 2004. PROHIBITION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW 4
CATEGORIES OF FEDERAL LAND DESIGNA-5
TIONS BY THE HEADS OF FEDERAL LAND 6
MANAGEMENT AGENCIES. 7
The head of a Federal land management agency may 8
not establish a new category of Federal land designations 9
that is not otherwise expressly authorized by Federal stat-10
ute. 11
SEC. 2005. COAL LEASES ON FEDERAL LAND. 12
(a) E
NVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW 13
C
OALLEASES.—The environmental assessment prepared 14
by the Bureau of Land Management entitled ‘‘Lifting the 15
Pause on the Issuance of New Federal Coal Leases for 16
Thermal (Steam) Coal’’ (DOI–BLM–WO–WO2100– 17
2019–0001–EA) is deemed to satisfy the requirements of 18
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 19
4321 et seq.) for purposes of the issuance of new coal 20
leases on Federal land. 21
(b) O
FFERING OFLEASES; ACCEPTANCE OFBIDS.— 22
Section 2(a)(1) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 23
201(a)(1)) is amended— 24
(1) in the first sentence— 25
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(A) by striking ‘‘he finds’’ and inserting 1
‘‘the Secretary of the Interior finds’’; and 2
(B) by striking ‘‘he shall, in his discretion, 3
upon the request of any qualified applicant or 4
on his own motion, from time to time, offer’’ 5
and inserting ‘‘the Secretary of the Interior, not 6
later than 90 days after the date of receipt of 7
the request of any qualified applicant, or on the 8
motion of the Secretary of the Interior not 9
fewer than 4 times each calendar year, shall 10
offer’’; and 11
(2) in the fifth sentence, by striking ‘‘No bid 12
shall be accepted which is less than the fair market 13
value, as determined by the Secretary,’’ and insert-14
ing ‘‘No bid shall be accepted that is less than the 15
fair market value, as determined by the Secretary of 16
the Interior by the date that is 45 days after the 17
date of receipt of the bid,’’. 18
SEC. 2006. MODIFICATION TO DEFINITIONS OF CRITICAL 19
MATERIAL AND CRITICAL MINERAL AND 20
CRITICAL MINERAL DESIGNATION CRITERIA. 21
(a) D
EFINITIONS OFCRITICALMATERIAL ANDCRIT-22
ICALMINERAL.— 23
(1) D
EFINITION OF CRITICAL MATERIAL .—Sec-24
tion 7002(a)(2)(A) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 25
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U.S.C. 1606(a)(2)(A)) is amended, in the matter 1
preceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘non-fuel’’. 2
(2) D
EFINITION OF CRITICAL MINERAL .—Sec-3
tion 7002(a)(3)(B)(i) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 4
U.S.C. 1606(a)(3)(B)(i)) is amended by striking 5
‘‘fuel minerals’’ and inserting ‘‘oil, oil shale, coal, or 6
natural gas’’. 7
(b) M
ODIFICATION TOCRITICALMINERALDESIGNA-8
TIONCRITERIA.—Section 7002(c)(4)(A)(ii) of the Energy 9
Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(c)(4)(A)(ii)) is amended by 10
inserting ‘‘significant projected domestic production de-11
cline,’’ after ‘‘abrupt demand growth,’’. 12
SEC. 2007. PERMITTING PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS. 13
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
(1) B
YPRODUCT.—The term ‘‘byproduct’’ has 15
the meaning given the term in section 7002(a) of the 16
Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)). 17
(2) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 18
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 19
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 20
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 21
(3) M
INERAL.—The term ‘‘mineral’’ means any 22
mineral subject to sections 2319 through 2344 of 23
the Revised Statutes (commonly known as the ‘‘Min-24
ing Law of 1872’’) (30 U.S.C. 22 et seq.), and min-25
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erals located on lands acquired by the United States 1
(as defined in section 2 of the Mineral Leasing Act 2
for Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 351)). 3
(4) S
ECRETARY.—Except as otherwise provided, 4
the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of the In-5
terior. 6
(5) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 7
(A) a State; 8
(B) the District of Columbia; 9
(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 10
(D) Guam; 11
(E) American Samoa; 12
(F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 13
Mariana Islands; and 14
(G) the United States Virgin Islands. 15
(b) M
INERALSSUPPLYCHAIN ANDRELIABILITY.— 16
Section 40206 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 17
Act (30 U.S.C. 1607) is amended— 18
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘
CRIT-19
ICAL MINERALS ’’ and inserting ‘‘MINERALS’’; 20
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 21
following: 22
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 23
‘‘(1) L
EAD AGENCY.—The term ‘lead agency’ 24
means the Federal agency with primary responsi-25
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bility for issuing a mineral exploration or mine per-1
mit or lease for a mineral project. 2
‘‘(2) M
INERAL.—The term ‘mineral’ has the 3
meaning given the term in section 2007(a) of the 4
Spur Permitting of Underdeveloped Resources Act. 5
‘‘(3) M
INERAL EXPLORATION OR MINE PER -6
MIT.—The term ‘mineral exploration or mine permit’ 7
means— 8
‘‘(A) an authorization of the Bureau of 9
Land Management or the Forest Service, as ap-10
plicable, for exploration for minerals that re-11
quires analysis under the National Environ-12
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 13
seq.); 14
‘‘(B) a plan of operations for a mineral 15
project approved by the Bureau of Land Man-16
agement or the Forest Service; or 17
‘‘(C) any other Federal permit or author-18
ization for a mineral project. 19
‘‘(4) M
INERAL PROJECT.—The term ‘mineral 20
project’ means a project that— 21
‘‘(A) is located on— 22
‘‘(i) a mining claim, millsite claim, or 23
tunnel site claim for any mineral; 24
‘‘(ii) lands open to mineral entry; or 25
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‘‘(iii) a Federal mineral lease; and 1
‘‘(B) is for the purposes of exploring for or 2
producing minerals.’’; 3
(3) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘critical’’ each 4
place it appears; 5
(4) in subsection (c)— 6
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph 7
(1)— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘critical mineral pro-9
duction on Federal land’’ and inserting 10
‘‘mineral projects’’; and 11
(ii) by striking ‘‘practicable, shall 12
complete the’’ and inserting ‘‘practicable, 13
and in accordance with subsection (h), 14
shall complete those’’; 15
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘critical 16
mineral-related activities on Federal land’’ and 17
inserting ‘‘mineral projects’’; 18
(C) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 19
the end; 20
(D) in paragraph (9), by striking the pe-21
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 22
(E) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(10) deferring to and relying on baseline data, 24
analyses, and reviews performed by State agencies 25
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with jurisdiction over the environmental or reclama-1
tion permits for the proposed mineral project.’’; 2
(5) in subsection (d)— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘critical’’ each place it ap-4
pears; and 5
(B) in paragraph (3), in the matter pre-6
ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘mineral- 7
related activities on Federal land’’ and inserting 8
‘‘mineral projects’’; 9
(6) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘critical’’; 10
(7) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘critical’’ each 11
place it appears; 12
(8) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘critical’’; and 13
(9) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(h) O
THERREQUIREMENTS.— 15
‘‘(1) M
EMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT .—To 16
maximize efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal 17
permitting and review processes described in sub-18
section (c), the lead agency in the Federal permit-19
ting and review processes of a mineral project shall 20
enter into a memorandum of agreement with a 21
project applicant on request by the applicant to 22
carry out the activities described in subsection (c). 23
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‘‘(2) CONSULTATION.—A lead agency described 1
in paragraph (1) shall carry out that paragraph in 2
consultation with— 3
‘‘(A) any other Federal agency involved in 4
the applicable Federal permitting and review 5
processes; and 6
‘‘(B) on request of the project applicant, 7
an affected State government, local government, 8
Indian Tribe, or other entity that the lead agen-9
cy determines appropriate. 10
‘‘(3) T
IMELINES AND SCHEDULES .— 11
‘‘(A) D
EADLINES.—Any timelines or 12
schedules established under subsection (c)(1) 13
relating to a review under section 102(2)(C) of 14
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 15
(42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)) shall require that the 16
review process not exceed— 17
‘‘(i) 1 year for an environmental as-18
sessment; and 19
‘‘(ii) 2 years for an environmental im-20
pact statement. 21
‘‘(B) E
XTENSION.—A project applicant 22
may enter into one or more agreements with a 23
lead agency to extend 1 or more of the dead-24
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lines described in subparagraph (A) by not 1
more than 6 months. 2
‘‘(C) A
DJUSTMENT OF TIMELINES .—At the 3
request of a project applicant, the lead agency 4
and any other entity that is a signatory to a 5
memorandum of agreement under paragraph 6
(1) may, by unanimous agreement, adjust— 7
‘‘(i) any deadlines described in sub-8
paragraph (A); and 9
‘‘(ii) any deadlines extended under 10
subparagraph (B). 11
‘‘(D) D
EADLINE FOR ISSUANCE OF AU -12
THORIZATIONS.—For a proposed agency action 13
with a timeline or schedule established under 14
subsection (c)(1) and a review process estab-15
lished in accordance with subparagraph (A), the 16
record of decision prepared for the proposed 17
agency action and all authorizations required 18
under any other Federal law with respect to the 19
proposed agency action shall be issued not later 20
than 90 days after the date on which the appli-21
cable environmental impact statement or envi-22
ronmental assessment is published in the Fed-23
eral Register. 24
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‘‘(4) DOCUMENT PREPARED BY PROJECT APPLI -1
CANT.—The lead agency with respect to a mineral 2
project may adopt an environmental impact state-3
ment or environmental assessment prepared by or 4
for a project applicant with respect to the mineral 5
project if that document fulfills the requirements of 6
section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 7
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)). 8
‘‘(5) E
FFECT ON PENDING APPLICATIONS .—On 9
a written request by a project applicant, the require-10
ments of this subsection shall apply to any applica-11
tion for a mineral exploration or mine permit or 12
mineral lease that was submitted before the date of 13
enactment of the Spur Permitting of Under-14
developed Resources Act.’’. 15
(c) F
EDERALREGISTERPROCESSIMPROVEMENT.— 16
Section 7002(f) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 17
1606(f)) is amended— 18
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘critical’’ in 19
each place it appears; and 20
(2) by striking paragraph (4). 21
(d) D
ESIGNATION OFMINING AS ACOVEREDSECTOR 22
FORFEDERALPERMITTINGIMPROVEMENT PURPOSES.— 23
Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 24
4370m(6)(A)) is amended in the matter preceding clause 25
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(i) by inserting ‘‘minerals production,’’ before ‘‘or any 1
other sector’’. 2
(e) M
INERALEXPLORATIONACTIVITIESWITHLIM-3
ITEDSURFACEDISTURBANCE.— 4
(1) D
EFINITION OF SECRETARY CONCERNED .— 5
In this subsection, the term ‘‘Secretary concerned’’ 6
means— 7
(A) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-8
spect to land under the jurisdiction of the Sec-9
retary of the Interior; or 10
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-11
spect to land of the National Forest System. 12
(2) N
OTICE.—An operator may submit to the 13
Secretary concerned notice requesting to carry out 14
mineral exploration activities other than casual use, 15
which shall include a description of the mineral ex-16
ploration activities and subsequent reclamation ac-17
tivities intended to be carried out. 18
(3) A
PPROVAL.—Notwithstanding any other 19
provision of law, not later than 15 calendar days 20
after receiving a notice under paragraph (2), the 21
Secretary concerned shall allow the activities de-22
scribed in the notice to proceed if— 23
(A) the surface disturbance on Federal 24
land will not exceed 5 acres; 25
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(B) the Secretary concerned determines 1
that the notice is complete; and 2
(C) financial assurance is provided. 3
(f) U
SE OFMININGCLAIMS FORANCILLARYACTIVI-4
TIES.—Section 10101 of the Omnibus Budget Reconcili-5
ation Act of 1993 (30 U.S.C. 28f) is amended by adding 6
at the end the following: 7
‘‘(e) S
ECURITY OFTENURE.— 8
‘‘(1) C
LAIMANT RIGHTS.— 9
‘‘(A) D
EFINITION OF OPERATIONS .—In 10
this paragraph, the term ‘operations’ means— 11
‘‘(i) with respect to a locatable min-12
eral, any activity or work carried out in 13
connection with— 14
‘‘(I) prospecting; 15
‘‘(II) exploration; 16
‘‘(III) processing; 17
‘‘(IV) discovery and assessment; 18
‘‘(V) development; or 19
‘‘(VI) extraction; 20
‘‘(ii) the reclamation of an area dis-21
turbed by an activity described in clause 22
(i); and 23
‘‘(iii) any activity reasonably incident 24
to an activity described in clause (i) or (ii), 25
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regardless of whether that incidental activ-1
ity is carried out on a mining claim, in-2
cluding the construction and maintenance 3
of any facility, road, transmission line, 4
pipeline, or any other necessary infrastruc-5
ture or means of access on public land. 6
‘‘(B) R
IGHTS TO USE, OCCUPATION, AND 7
OPERATIONS.—A claimant shall have the right 8
to use, occupy, and conduct operations on pub-9
lic land, with or without the discovery of a valu-10
able mineral deposit, if— 11
‘‘(i) the claimant makes a timely pay-12
ment of the location fee required by section 13
10102 and the claim maintenance fee re-14
quired by subsection (a); or 15
‘‘(ii) in the case of a claimant who 16
qualifies for a waiver under subsection 17
(d)— 18
‘‘(I) the claimant makes a timely 19
payment of the location fee required 20
by section 10102; and 21
‘‘(II) the claimant complies with 22
the required assessment work under 23
the general mining laws. 24
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‘‘(2) FULFILLMENT OF FEDERAL LAND POLICY 1
AND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1976 .—A claimant that 2
fulfills the requirements of this section and section 3
10102 shall be deemed to satisfy any requirements 4
under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 5
of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) for the payment 6
of fair market value to the United States for the use 7
of public land and resources pursuant to the general 8
mining laws. 9
‘‘(3) S
AVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this sub-10
section diminishes any right (including a right of 11
entry, use, or occupancy) of a claimant.’’. 12
(g) L
IMITATION ONJUDICIALREVIEW.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 14
provision of law, a claim arising under Federal law 15
seeking judicial review of a permit, license, or ap-16
proval issued by a lead agency (as defined in sub-17
section (a) of section 40206 of the Infrastructure In-18
vestment and Jobs Act (30 U.S.C. 1607)) for a min-19
ing project shall be barred unless it is filed not later 20
than 60 days after the date of publication of a no-21
tice in the Federal Register announcing that the 22
permit, license, or approval is final in accordance 23
with the law under which the agency action is taken, 24
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unless a shorter time is specified in the Federal law 1
pursuant to which judicial review is allowed. 2
(2) S
AVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this sub-3
section— 4
(A) establishes a right to judicial review; 5
or 6
(B) places any limit on filing a claim that 7
a person has violated the terms of a permit, li-8
cense, or approval. 9
(h) R
EMAND.—Notwithstanding any other provision 10
of law, no approval of a mineral exploration or mine per-11
mit as defined in section 40206(a) of the Infrastructure 12
Investment and Jobs Act (30 U.S.C. 1607) (as amended 13
by subsection (b)(2)) shall be vacated or otherwise limited, 14
delayed, or enjoined unless the applicable court concludes 15
allowing such proposed action will pose a risk of an immi-16
nent and substantial environmental harm and there is no 17
other equitable remedy available as a matter of law. 18
TITLE III—FEDERAL ENERGY 19
REGULATORY COMMISSION 20
SEC. 3001. TARIFF REFORMS, RATE TREATMENTS, AND 21
RULEMAKING TO ENSURE THE RELIABILITY 22
AND SECURITY OF ELECTRIC SERVICE AND 23
INTERSTATE NATURAL GAS SERVICE. 24
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
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(1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 1
means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 2
(2) C
RITICAL ELECTRIC INFRASTRUCTURE ; DE-3
FENSE CRITICAL ELECTRIC INFRASTRUCTURE ; GRID 4
SECURITY EMERGENCY .—The terms ‘‘critical electric 5
infrastructure’’, ‘‘defense critical electric infrastruc-6
ture’’, and ‘‘grid security emergency’’ have the 7
meanings given the terms in section 215A(a) of the 8
Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o–1(a)). 9
(3) I
NTERSTATE NATURAL GAS PIPELINE .—The 10
term ‘‘interstate natural gas pipeline’’ means a facil-11
ity under the jurisdiction of the Commission under 12
the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717 et seq.) that is 13
engaged in the transportation of natural gas in 14
interstate commerce, or the sale in interstate com-15
merce of natural gas for resale, under section 3 or 16
7 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 717b, 717f). 17
(4) N
ATURAL DISASTER.—The term ‘‘natural 18
disaster’’ means— 19
(A) a major disaster declared by the Presi-20
dent under section 401 of the Robert T. Staf-21
ford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 22
Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); and 23
(B) any other natural catastrophe, includ-24
ing a hurricane, tornado, storm, snowstorm, 25
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superstorm, flood, high water, winddriven 1
water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic 2
eruption, landslide, mudslide, drought, and 3
wildfire. 4
(b) T
ARIFFREFORMS, RATETREATMENTS, AND 5
R
ULEMAKING.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 6
enactment of this Act, the Commission shall adopt tariff 7
provisions and rate treatments, and establish separately, 8
by rule, additional reforms, that, in the determination of 9
the Commission, are necessary to protect the adequacy, 10
affordability, reliability, and security of the supply and de-11
livery of— 12
(1) electricity, and attributes of electric supply, 13
that enhance the continuance or prompt resumption 14
of the supply or delivery of electricity— 15
(A) under normal operating conditions; or 16
(B) during or after— 17
(i) a grid security emergency; or 18
(ii) a natural disaster; and 19
(2) natural gas by interstate natural gas pipe-20
lines. 21
(c) R
EQUIREDCONSIDERATIONS.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out subsection 23
(b), the Commission shall— 24
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(A) consider whether and the extent to 1
which each of the matters described in subpara-2
graphs (A) through (E) of paragraph (2) have 3
a material impact on the adequacy, afford-4
ability, reliability, and security of the supply or 5
delivery of— 6
(i) electricity; or 7
(ii) natural gas by interstate natural 8
gas pipelines; and 9
(B) ensure that the record of the rule-10
making proceeding under that subsection re-11
flects that consideration. 12
(2) M
ATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED .—In carrying 13
out subsection (b), the Commission shall solicit, con-14
sider, and include in the record of the rulemaking 15
proceeding under that subsection evidence of— 16
(A) with respect to each category of facili-17
ties that are subject to the jurisdiction of the 18
Commission and have a material impact on the 19
supply or delivery of electricity, including inter-20
state natural gas pipelines, or of natural gas by 21
interstate natural gas pipelines— 22
(i) the adequacy, affordability, reli-23
ability, and security of— 24
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(I) the facilities in the applicable 1
category; 2
(II) the contribution to the sup-3
ply and delivery of electricity or nat-4
ural gas, as applicable, by the facili-5
ties in the applicable category; and 6
(III) the supply and delivery of 7
other energy products by facilities in 8
the applicable category, to the extent 9
that the supply and delivery of those 10
energy products has a material impact 11
on the supply or delivery of electricity 12
or natural gas, as applicable; and 13
(ii) rate treatments and tariff reforms 14
that would protect the adequacy, afford-15
ability, reliability, and security of the sup-16
ply and delivery of, as applicable— 17
(I) electricity; or 18
(II) natural gas by interstate 19
natural gas pipelines; 20
(B) the attributes of electric generating 21
units that make a demonstrable contribution 22
to— 23
(i) grid stability; and 24
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(ii) the continuation or resumption of 1
reliable service in a defined region; 2
(C)(i) the state of development of relevant 3
energy technologies, including electric tech-4
nologies; and 5
(ii) the likelihood of deployment of those 6
technologies during the 7-year period beginning 7
on the date of enactment of this Act; 8
(D) identifiable threats to— 9
(i) critical electric infrastructure; and 10
(ii) defense critical electric infrastruc-11
ture; and 12
(E) identifiable impediments to the ade-13
quacy, affordability, reliability, or security of 14
the supply and delivery of electricity or of nat-15
ural gas by interstate natural gas pipelines pre-16
sented by any precedents or rules of the Com-17
mission in effect as of the date of enactment of 18
this Act. 19
(d) U
PDATES.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning on the date that 21
is 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, 22
and every 5 years thereafter, the Commission 23
shall— 24
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(A) revise and update the rule established 1
under subsection (b); or 2
(B) make a public determination that re-3
vising and updating the rule is not necessary at 4
that time. 5
(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—In carrying out paragraph 6
(1), the Commission shall solicit, consider, and in-7
clude in the record of any rulemaking proceeding 8
carried out under subparagraph (A) of that para-9
graph or any determination made under subpara-10
graph (B) of that paragraph any new evidence or in-11
formation relating to the matters described in sub-12
paragraphs (A) through (E) of subsection (c)(2). 13
SEC. 3002. FEDERAL AUTHORIZATIONS UNDER THE NAT-14
URAL GAS ACT. 15
Section 15 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717n) 16
is amended— 17
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting before ‘‘In 18
this section’’ the following: 19
‘‘D
EFINITION OF FEDERAL AUTHORIZATION .— 20
’’; 21
(2) in subsection (e), by inserting before ‘‘Hear-22
ings under this’’ the following: 23
‘‘H
EARINGS AND PROCEEDINGS .—’’; 24
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(3) in subsection (f), by inserting before ‘‘All 1
hearings,’’ the following: 2
‘‘G
OVERNING RULES.—’’; and 3
(4) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(g) A
DDITIONALREQUIREMENTS.— 6
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION OF EFFECTS.—In conducting 7
a review under the National Environmental Policy 8
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) relating to any 9
Federal authorization (or to any other decision relat-10
ing to the issuance of an order or certificate, or the 11
approval or denial of an application, under section 3 12
or 7), the Commission shall consider the term ‘ef-13
fects’, as used in that Act with respect to impacts 14
and effects, to mean physical changes to the human 15
environment as a result of a proposed action or al-16
ternative action to be carried out by a Federal agen-17
cy that— 18
‘‘(A) are reasonably foreseeable, not specu-19
lative, and not remote in time or geographically 20
remote; 21
‘‘(B) have a reasonably close causal rela-22
tionship that is not the product of a lengthy 23
causal chain to the proposed action or alter-24
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native action, respectively, as determined by the 1
Commission; 2
‘‘(C) the Commission has the ability to 3
prevent and that would not occur absent the 4
proposed action or alternative action; and 5
‘‘(D) do not constitute potential effects 6
from emissions upstream or downstream of the 7
facility that is the subject of the application 8
under section 3 or 7. 9
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—For purposes of para-10
graph (1)(B), a ‘but for’ causal relationship is insuf-11
ficient to establish a reasonably close causal relation-12
ship. 13
‘‘(3) A
LTERNATIVES.—Any alternatives re-14
quired to be analyzed under the National Environ-15
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 16
by the Commission shall— 17
‘‘(A) meet the purpose and need for the 18
proposed action; 19
‘‘(B) where applicable, meet the goals of 20
the applicant; and 21
‘‘(C) be within the authority of the Federal 22
agency to control. 23
‘‘(4) N
O USE OF SOCIAL COST METRICS .—In 24
conducting a review described in paragraph (1), the 25
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Commission shall not consider or apply any metric 1
that purports to estimate the monetized damages or 2
benefits associated with incremental increases or de-3
creases in greenhouse gas emissions.’’. 4
SEC. 3003. FEDERAL AUTHORIZATIONS UNDER SECTION 216 5
OF THE FEDERAL POWER ACT. 6
Section 216(h) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 7
824p(h)) is amended— 8
(1) in paragraph (1)— 9
(A) by striking ‘‘(1) In this subsection’’ 10
and all that follows through ‘‘The term’’ in sub-11
paragraph (A) and inserting the following: 12
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION OF FEDERAL AUTHORIZA -13
TION.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In this subsection, the 15
term’’; and 16
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘(B) 17
The term’’ and inserting the following: 18
‘‘(B) I
NCLUSIONS.—In this subsection, the 19
term’’; and 20
(2) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(10) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS .— 22
‘‘(A) D
EFINITION OF EFFECTS .—In con-23
ducting a review under the National Environ-24
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 25
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seq.) relating to any Federal authorization (or 1
to any other decision relating to the issuance of 2
a Federal authorization, or the approval or de-3
nial of an application, under this section), the 4
Commission shall consider the term ‘effects’, as 5
used in that Act with respect to impacts and ef-6
fects, to mean physical changes to the human 7
environment as a result of a proposed action or 8
alternative action to be carried out by a Federal 9
agency that— 10
‘‘(i) are reasonably foreseeable, not 11
speculative, and not remote in time or geo-12
graphically remote; 13
‘‘(ii) have a reasonably close causal 14
relationship that is not the product of a 15
lengthy causal chain to the proposed action 16
or alternative action, respectively, as deter-17
mined by the Commission; 18
‘‘(iii) the Commission has the ability 19
to prevent and that would not occur absent 20
the proposed action or alternative action; 21
and 22
‘‘(iv) do not constitute potential ef-23
fects from emissions upstream or down-24
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stream of the facility that is the subject of 1
the application under this section. 2
‘‘(B) R
EQUIREMENT.—For purposes of 3
subparagraph (A)(ii), a ‘but for’ causal rela-4
tionship is insufficient to establish a reasonably 5
close causal relationship. 6
‘‘(C) A
LTERNATIVES.—Any alternatives re-7
quired to be analyzed under the National Envi-8
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 9
et seq.) by the Commission shall— 10
‘‘(i) meet the purpose and need for 11
the proposed action; 12
‘‘(ii) where applicable, meet the goals 13
of the applicant; and 14
‘‘(iii) be within the authority of the 15
Federal agency to control. 16
‘‘(D) N
O USE OF SOCIAL COST METRICS .— 17
In conducting a review described in subpara-18
graph (A), the Commission shall not consider or 19
apply any metric that purports to estimate the 20
monetized damages or benefits associated with 21
incremental increases or decreases in green-22
house gas emissions.’’. 23
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SEC. 3004. PROMOTING INTERAGENCY COORDINATION FOR 1
REVIEW OF NATURAL GAS PROJECTS. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 4
means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 5
(2) F
EDERAL AUTHORIZATION .—The term 6
‘‘Federal authorization’’ has the meaning given that 7
term in section 15(a) of the Natural Gas Act (15 8
U.S.C. 717n(a)). 9
(3) E
NVIRONMENTAL REVIEW .—The term ‘‘en-10
vironmental review’’ means the process of preparing, 11
for a proposed agency action in accordance with the 12
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 13
U.S.C. 4332)— 14
(A) an environmental impact statement; 15
(B) an environmental assessment; 16
(C) a categorical exclusion; 17
(D) a finding of no significant impact; and 18
(E) a record of decision. 19
(4) P
ROJECT-RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL RE -20
VIEW.—The term ‘‘project-related environmental re-21
view’’ means any environmental review required to 22
be conducted with respect to the issuance of an au-23
thorization under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act 24
or a certificate of public convenience and necessity 25
under section 7 of such Act. 26
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(b) COMMISSIONRESPONSIBILITIES.—In acting as 1
the lead agency under section 15(b)(1) of the Natural Gas 2
Act for the purposes of complying with the National Envi-3
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 4
with respect to an authorization under section 3 of the 5
Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience and 6
necessity under section 7 of such Act, the Commission 7
shall, in accordance with this section and other applicable 8
Federal law— 9
(1) be the only lead agency; 10
(2) coordinate as early as practicable with each 11
agency designated as a participating agency under 12
subsection (d)(3) to ensure that the Commission de-13
velops information in conducting its project-related 14
environmental review that is usable by the partici-15
pating agency in considering an aspect of an appli-16
cation for a Federal authorization for which the 17
agency is responsible; and 18
(3) take such actions as are necessary and 19
proper to facilitate the expeditious resolution of its 20
project-related environmental review. 21
(c) D
EFERENCE TOCOMMISSION.—In making a deci-22
sion with respect to a Federal authorization required with 23
respect to an application for authorization under section 24
3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public conven-25
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ience and necessity under section 7 of such Act, each agen-1
cy shall give deference, to the maximum extent authorized 2
by law, to the scope of the project-related environmental 3
review that the Commission determines to be appropriate. 4
(d) P
ARTICIPATINGAGENCIES.— 5
(1) I
DENTIFICATION.—The Commission shall 6
identify, not later than 30 days after the Commis-7
sion receives an application for an authorization 8
under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certifi-9
cate of public convenience and necessity under sec-10
tion 7 of such Act, any Federal or State agency, 11
local government, or Indian Tribe that may issue a 12
Federal authorization or is required by Federal law 13
to consult with the Commission in conjunction with 14
the issuance of a Federal authorization required for 15
such authorization or certificate. 16
(2) I
NVITATION.— 17
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days 18
after the Commission receives 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, the 22
Commission shall invite any agency identified 23
under paragraph (1) to participate in the review 24
process for the applicable Federal authorization. 25
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(B) DEADLINE.—An invitation issued 1
under subparagraph (A) shall establish a dead-2
line by which a response to the invitation shall 3
be submitted to the Commission, which may be 4
extended by the Commission for good cause. 5
(3) D
ESIGNATION AS PARTICIPATING AGEN -6
CIES.—Not later than 60 days after the Commission 7
receives an application for an authorization under 8
section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of 9
public convenience and necessity under section 7 of 10
such Act, the Commission shall designate an agency 11
identified under paragraph (1) as a participating 12
agency with respect to an application for authoriza-13
tion under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 14
certificate of public convenience and necessity under 15
section 7 of such Act unless the agency informs the 16
Commission, in writing, by the deadline established 17
pursuant to paragraph (2)(B), that the agency— 18
(A) has no jurisdiction or authority with 19
respect to the applicable Federal authorization; 20
(B) has no special expertise or information 21
relevant to any project-related environmental 22
review; or 23
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(C) does not intend to submit comments 1
for the record for the project-related environ-2
mental review conducted by the Commission. 3
(4) E
FFECT OF NON-DESIGNATION.— 4
(A) E
FFECT ON AGENCY .—Any agency 5
that is not designated as a participating agency 6
under paragraph (3) with respect to an applica-7
tion for an authorization under section 3 of the 8
Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public con-9
venience and necessity under section 7 of such 10
Act may not request or conduct an environ-11
mental review that is supplemental to the 12
project-related environmental review conducted 13
by the Commission, unless the agency— 14
(i) demonstrates that such review is 15
legally necessary for the agency to carry 16
out responsibilities in considering an as-17
pect of an application for a Federal au-18
thorization; and 19
(ii) requires information that could 20
not have been obtained during the project- 21
related environmental review conducted by 22
the Commission. 23
(B) C
OMMENTS; RECORD.—The Commis-24
sion shall not, with respect to an agency that is 25
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not designated as a participating agency under 1
paragraph (3) with respect to an application for 2
an authorization under section 3 of the Natural 3
Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience 4
and necessity under section 7 of such Act— 5
(i) consider any comments or other in-6
formation submitted by such agency for 7
the project-related environmental review 8
conducted by the Commission; or 9
(ii) include any such comments or 10
other information in the record for such 11
project-related environmental review. 12
(e) W
ATERQUALITYIMPACTS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 401 14
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 15
U.S.C. 1341), a certification under such section 16
shall not be required with respect to a Federal au-17
thorization. 18
(2) C
OORDINATION.—With respect to any envi-19
ronmental review for a Federal authorization to con-20
duct an activity that will directly result in a dis-21
charge into the navigable waters (within the mean-22
ing of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act), the 23
Commission shall identify as an agency under sub-24
section (d)(1) the State in which the discharge origi-25
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nates or will originate, or, if appropriate, the inter-1
state water pollution control agency having jurisdic-2
tion over the navigable waters at the point where the 3
discharge originates or will originate. 4
(3) P
ROPOSED CONDITIONS .—A State or inter-5
state agency designated as a participating agency 6
pursuant to paragraph (2) may propose to the Com-7
mission terms or conditions for inclusion in an au-8
thorization under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act 9
or a certificate of public convenience and necessity 10
under section 7 of such Act that the State or inter-11
state agency determines are necessary to ensure that 12
any discharge described in paragraph (2) conducted 13
pursuant to such authorization or certification will 14
comply with the applicable provisions of sections 15
301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 of the Federal Water 16
Pollution Control Act. 17
(4) C
OMMISSION CONSIDERATION OF CONDI -18
TIONS.—The Commission may include a term or 19
condition in an authorization under section 3 of the 20
Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public conven-21
ience and necessity under section 7 of such Act pro-22
posed by a State or interstate agency under para-23
graph (3) only if the Commission finds with clear 24
and convincing evidence that the term or condition 25
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is necessary to ensure that any discharge described 1
in paragraph (2) conducted pursuant to such au-2
thorization or certification will comply with the ap-3
plicable provisions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, 4
and 307 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. 5
(f) S
CHEDULE.— 6
(1) D
EADLINE FOR FEDERAL AUTHORIZA -7
TIONS.—A deadline for a Federal authorization re-8
quired with respect to an application for authoriza-9
tion under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 10
certificate of public convenience and necessity under 11
section 7 of such Act set by the Commission under 12
section 15(c)(1) of such Act shall be not later than 13
90 days after the Commission completes its project- 14
related environmental review, unless an applicable 15
schedule is otherwise established by Federal law. 16
(2) C
ONCURRENT REVIEWS .—Each Federal and 17
State agency— 18
(A) that may consider an application for a 19
Federal authorization required with respect to 20
an application for authorization under section 3 21
of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public 22
convenience and necessity under section 7 of 23
such Act shall formulate and implement a plan 24
for administrative, policy, and procedural mech-25
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anisms to enable the agency to ensure comple-1
tion of Federal authorizations in compliance 2
with schedules established by the Commission 3
under section 15(c)(1) of such Act; and 4
(B) in considering an aspect of an applica-5
tion for a Federal authorization required with 6
respect to an application for authorization 7
under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a 8
certificate of public convenience and necessity 9
under section 7 of such Act, shall— 10
(i) formulate and implement a plan to 11
enable the agency to comply with the 12
schedule established by the Commission 13
under section 15(c)(1) of such Act; 14
(ii) carry out the obligations of that 15
agency under applicable law concurrently, 16
and in conjunction with, the project-related 17
environmental review conducted by the 18
Commission, and in compliance with the 19
schedule established by the Commission 20
under section 15(c)(1) of such Act, unless 21
the agency notifies the Commission in writ-22
ing that doing so would impair the ability 23
of the agency to conduct needed analysis 24
or otherwise carry out such obligations; 25
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(iii) transmit to the Commission a 1
statement— 2
(I) acknowledging receipt of the 3
schedule established by the Commis-4
sion under section 15(c)(1) of the 5
Natural Gas Act; and 6
(II) setting forth the plan formu-7
lated under clause (i) of this subpara-8
graph; 9
(iv) not later than 30 days after the 10
agency receives such application for a Fed-11
eral authorization, transmit to the appli-12
cant a notice— 13
(I) indicating whether such appli-14
cation is ready for processing; and 15
(II) if such application is not 16
ready for processing, that includes a 17
comprehensive description of the in-18
formation needed for the agency to 19
determine that the application is 20
ready for processing; 21
(v) determine that such application 22
for a Federal authorization is ready for 23
processing for purposes of clause (iv) if 24
such application is sufficiently complete for 25
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the purposes of commencing consideration, 1
regardless of whether supplemental infor-2
mation is necessary to enable the agency to 3
complete the consideration required by law 4
with respect to such application; and 5
(vi) not less often than once every 90 6
days, transmit to the Commission a report 7
describing the progress made in consid-8
ering such application for a Federal au-9
thorization. 10
(3) F
AILURE TO MEET DEADLINE .—If a Fed-11
eral or State agency, including the Commission, fails 12
to meet a deadline for a Federal authorization set 13
forth in the schedule established by the Commission 14
under section 15(c)(1) of the Natural Gas Act, not 15
later than 5 days after such deadline, the head of 16
the relevant Federal agency (including, in the case 17
of a failure by a State agency, the Federal agency 18
overseeing the delegated authority) shall notify Con-19
gress and the Commission of such failure and set 20
forth a recommended implementation plan to ensure 21
completion of the action to which such deadline ap-22
plied. 23
(g) C
ONSIDERATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR FED-24
ERALAUTHORIZATION.— 25
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(1) ISSUE IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLU -1
TION.— 2
(A) I
DENTIFICATION.—Federal and State 3
agencies that may consider an aspect of an ap-4
plication for a Federal authorization shall iden-5
tify, as early as possible, any issues of concern 6
that may delay or prevent an agency from 7
working with the Commission to resolve such 8
issues and granting such authorization. 9
(B) I
SSUE RESOLUTION.—The Commission 10
may forward any issue of concern identified 11
under subparagraph (A) to the heads of the rel-12
evant agencies (including, in the case of an 13
issue of concern that is a failure by a State 14
agency, the Federal agency overseeing the dele-15
gated authority, if applicable) for resolution. 16
(2) R
EMOTE SURVEYS.—If a Federal or State 17
agency considering an aspect of an application for a 18
Federal authorization requires the person applying 19
for such authorization to submit data, the agency 20
shall consider any such data gathered by aerial or 21
other remote means that the person submits. The 22
agency may grant a conditional approval for the 23
Federal authorization based on data gathered by 24
aerial or remote means, conditioned on the 25
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verification of such data by subsequent onsite in-1
spection. 2
(3) A
PPLICATION PROCESSING .—The Commis-3
sion, and Federal and State agencies, may allow a 4
person applying for a Federal authorization to fund 5
a third-party contractor to assist in reviewing the 6
application for such authorization. 7
(h) A
CCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY, EFFI-8
CIENCY.—For an application for an authorization under 9
section 3 of the Natural Gas Act or a certificate of public 10
convenience and necessity under section 7 of such Act that 11
requires multiple Federal authorizations, the Commission, 12
with input from any Federal or State agency considering 13
an aspect of the application, shall track and make avail-14
able to the public on the Commission’s website information 15
related to the actions required to complete the Federal au-16
thorizations. Such information shall include the following: 17
(1) The schedule established by the Commission 18
under section 15(c)(1) of the Natural Gas Act. 19
(2) A list of all the actions required by each ap-20
plicable agency to complete permitting, reviews, and 21
other actions necessary to obtain a final decision on 22
the application. 23
(3) The expected completion date for each such 24
action. 25
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(4) A point of contact at the agency responsible 1
for each such action. 2
(5) In the event that an action is still pending 3
as of the expected date of completion, a brief expla-4
nation of the reasons for the delay. 5
(i) P
IPELINESECURITY.—In considering an applica-6
tion for an authorization under section 3 of the Natural 7
Gas Act or a certificate of public convenience and neces-8
sity under section 7 of such Act, the Federal Energy Reg-9
ulatory Commission shall consult with the Administrator 10
of the Transportation Security Administration regarding 11
the applicant’s compliance with security guidance and best 12
practice recommendations of the Administration regarding 13
pipeline infrastructure security, pipeline cybersecurity, 14
pipeline personnel security, and other pipeline security 15
measures. 16
SEC. 3005. COORDINATION PROCESS TO PROTECT ELEC-17
TRIC RELIABILITY. 18
(a) D
EFINITION.—Section 215(a) of the Federal 19
Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o(a)) is amended by adding at 20
the end the following: 21
‘‘(9) The term ‘agency head’ means the prin-22
cipal officer of any executive agency of the United 23
States. 24
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‘‘(10) The term ‘identified agency proposal’ 1
means any proposed rule, regulation, standard, cri-2
teria document, deadline, or determination that, if 3
adopted, is likely to have a significant negative im-4
pact on the reliability and adequacy of the bulk- 5
power system in North America.’’. 6
(b) E
LECTRICRELIABILITYORGANIZATIONCOORDI-7
NATION.—Section 215 of the Federal Power Act (16 8
U.S.C. 824o) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (g)— 10
(A) by striking ‘‘The ERO’’ and inserting 11
‘‘(1) The ERO’’; and 12
(B) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(2) At the request of a State, the Commission, 14
an agency head with authority over the identified 15
agency proposal at issue, or on its own motion, the 16
ERO, in conducting periodic assessments under 17
paragraph (1), in consultation with relevant regional 18
reliability coordinators, shall— 19
‘‘(A) consider the potential impacts of any 20
identified agency proposal; and 21
‘‘(B) as soon as practicable after con-22
ducting the assessment, submit to the Commis-23
sion and the relevant agency head a report con-24
taining an assessment of the identified agency 25
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proposal describing those potential impacts and 1
any relevant information relating to those po-2
tential impacts.’’; 3
(2) by redesignating subsections (h) through (k) 4
as subsections (i) through (l), respectively; and 5
(3) by inserting after subsection (g) the fol-6
lowing: 7
‘‘(h)(1) The agency head shall make available to the 8
Commission for review and comment an identified agency 9
proposal in accordance with paragraph (2). 10
‘‘(2) In carrying out paragraph (1), the agency head 11
shall provide to the Commission the identified agency pro-12
posal described in that paragraph— 13
‘‘(A) on the earliest date on which the identified 14
agency proposal is provided to the Office of Manage-15
ment and Budget or any another Federal agency for 16
formal review and comment; or 17
‘‘(B) if the identified agency proposal is not 18
provided to the Office of Management and Budget 19
or any other Federal agency for formal review and 20
comment, not later than 90 days before the date on 21
which the agency head publishes in the Federal Reg-22
ister or otherwise makes available for public inspec-23
tion or comment the identified agency proposal. 24
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‘‘(3)(A) The Commission, in consultation with the 1
ERO, shall, by order, provide to the agency head com-2
ments on the identified agency proposal. 3
‘‘(B) An agency head shall not finalize any identified 4
agency proposal that is the subject of a comment from 5
the Commission under subparagraph (A) until the agency 6
head has responded in writing to the Commission with an 7
explanation of how the agency head has modified or deter-8
mined not to modify the identified agency proposal in re-9
sponse to the comment from the Commission. 10
‘‘(C) Not later than the date on which an identified 11
agency proposal with respect to which a comment is pro-12
vided by the Commission under subparagraph (A) is pub-13
lished in the Federal Register, the agency head shall— 14
‘‘(i) include the comment and any response pro-15
vided by the agency head under subparagraph (B) in 16
the public record of the applicable proceeding relat-17
ing to the identified agency proposal; or 18
‘‘(ii) otherwise make the comment and response 19
available for public inspection.’’. 20
SEC. 3006. ADDRESSING INACTION BY COMMISSION ON 21
CERTAIN ELECTRIC RATE FILINGS. 22
Section 205 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 23
824d) is amended by striking subsection (g) and inserting 24
the following: 25
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‘‘(g) INACTION BYCOMMISSIONDUE TOVACANCY, 1
I
NCAPACITY, RECUSAL, ORLACK OFQUORUM.—With re-2
spect to a change described in subsection (d), if the Com-3
mission allows the 60-day period described in that sub-4
section to expire without issuing an order accepting or de-5
nying the change because the Commissioners are divided 6
2 against 2 as to the lawfulness of the change, as a result 7
of vacancy, incapacity, or recusal on the Commission, or 8
because the Commission lacks a quorum— 9
‘‘(1) the Secretary of the Commission shall 10
issue a notice stating the reason that the Commis-11
sion was unable to issue an order accepting or deny-12
ing the change; 13
‘‘(2) the change shall be considered to be re-14
jected; and 15
‘‘(3) the rejection described in paragraph (2) 16
shall take effect automatically, by operation of law, 17
on issuance of the notice described in paragraph 18
(1).’’. 19
SEC. 3007. TOLLING ORDER REFORM FOR THE NATURAL 20
GAS ACT. 21
Section 19(a) of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 22
717r(a)) is amended, in the fourth sentence, by striking 23
‘‘thirty’’ and inserting ‘‘60’’. 24
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SEC. 3008. TOLLING ORDER REFORM FOR THE FEDERAL 1
POWER ACT. 2
Section 313(a) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 3
825l(a)) is amended, in the fourth sentence, by striking 4
‘‘thirty’’ and inserting ‘‘60’’. 5
SEC. 3009. DE NOVO REVIEW OF CIVIL PENALTIES UNDER 6
THE NATURAL GAS ACT. 7
Section 22(b) of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 8
717t–1(b)) is amended by inserting before the period at 9
the end the following: ‘‘, in accordance with the same pro-10
visions as are applicable under section 31(d) of the Fed-11
eral Power Act (16 U.S.C. 823b(d)) in the case of civil 12
penalties assessed under section 31 of the Federal Power 13
Act (16 U.S.C. 823b)’’. 14
SEC. 3010. EXTENSION OF TIME TO COMMENCE CONSTRUC-15
TION OF CERTAIN HYDROPOWER PROJECTS. 16
(a) D
EFINITION OFCOVEREDPROJECT.—In this sec-17
tion, the term ‘‘covered project’’ means a hydropower 18
project with respect to which the Federal Energy Regu-19
latory Commission issued a license before March 13, 2020. 20
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF EXTENSION.—Notwith-21
standing section 13 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 22
806), on the request of a licensee of a covered project, 23
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may, after 24
reasonable notice and for good cause shown, extend in ac-25
cordance with subsection (c) the period during which the 26
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licensee is required to commence construction of the cov-1
ered project for an additional 4 years beyond the 8 years 2
authorized by that section. 3
(c) P
ERIOD OFEXTENSION.—An extension of time 4
to commence construction of a covered project under sub-5
section (b) shall— 6
(1) begin on the date on which the final exten-7
sion of the period for commencement of construction 8
granted to the licensee under section 13 of the Fed-9
eral Power Act (16 U.S.C. 806) expires; and 10
(2) end on the date that is 4 years after the lat-11
est date to which the Federal Energy Regulatory 12
Commission is authorized to extend the period for 13
commencement of construction under that section. 14
SEC. 3011. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 15
Section 19(d)(3) of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 16
717r(d)(3)) is amended, in the first sentence, by inserting 17
‘‘, is not supported by clear and convincing evidence,’’ 18
after ‘‘such permit’’. 19
SEC. 3012. APPROVAL FOR BORDER-CROSSING FACILITIES. 20
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 21
(1) A
PPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES .—The 22
term ‘‘appropriate Federal agencies’’ in subsection 23
(b)(2)(A) means the Secretary of Defense, the Attor-24
ney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Sec-25
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retary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transpor-1
tation, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of 2
Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Envi-3
ronmental Protection Agency, and, for applications 4
concerning the border with Mexico, the United 5
States Commissioner of the International Boundary 6
and Water Commission. 7
(2) B
ORDER-CROSSING FACILITY.—The term 8
‘‘border-crossing facility’’ means— 9
(A) the portion of an oil pipeline between 10
an international boundary and the first main-11
line valve on the United States side of an inter-12
national boundary; and 13
(B) the portion of a natural gas pipeline or 14
electric transmission facility that is located at 15
an international boundary of the United States. 16
(3) E
LECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION ; RE-17
GIONAL ENTITY.—The terms ‘‘Electric Reliability 18
Organization’’ and ‘‘regional entity’’ have the mean-19
ings given those terms in section 215 of the Federal 20
Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o). 21
(4) I
NDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR ; RE-22
GIONAL TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION .—The terms 23
‘‘Independent System Operator’’ and ‘‘Regional 24
Transmission Organization’’ have the meanings 25
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given those terms in section 3 of the Federal Power 1
Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 2
(5) M
ODIFICATION.—The term ‘‘modification’’ 3
includes a reversal of flow direction, change in own-4
ership, change in flow volume, change in product de-5
livered, addition or removal of an interconnection, or 6
an adjustment to regulate flow (such as a reduction 7
or increase in the number of pump or compressor 8
stations or valves). 9
(6) N
ATURAL GAS.—The term ‘‘natural gas’’ 10
has the meaning given that term in section 2 of the 11
Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717a). 12
(7) O
IL.—The term ‘‘oil’’ means petroleum or 13
a petroleum product. 14
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF CERTAINENERGYINFRA-15
STRUCTUREPROJECTS AT AN INTERNATIONAL BOUND-16
ARY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.— 17
(1) A
UTHORIZATION.—Except as provided in 18
paragraph (3) and subsection (f), no person may 19
construct, connect, or operate, a border-crossing fa-20
cility for the import or export of oil or natural gas, 21
or the transmission of electricity, across an inter-22
national border of the United States without obtain-23
ing a certificate of crossing for the border-crossing 24
facility under this subsection. 25
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(2) CERTIFICATE OF CROSSING.— 1
(A) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 90 2
days after final action is taken, by the relevant 3
official or agency identified under subparagraph 4
(B), under the National Environmental Policy 5
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with re-6
spect to a border-crossing facility for which a 7
person requests a certificate of crossing under 8
this subsection, the relevant official or agency, 9
in consultation with appropriate Federal agen-10
cies, shall issue a certificate of crossing for the 11
border-crossing facility unless the relevant offi-12
cial or agency finds that the construction, con-13
nection, or operation, of the border-crossing fa-14
cility is not in the public interest of the United 15
States. 16
(B) R
ELEVANT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY .— 17
The relevant official or agency referred to in 18
subparagraph (A) is— 19
(i) the Federal Energy Regulatory 20
Commission with respect to border-cross-21
ing facilities consisting of oil or natural 22
gas pipelines; and 23
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(ii) the Secretary of Energy with re-1
spect to border-crossing facilities consisting 2
of electric transmission facilities. 3
(C) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR 4
ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION FACILITIES .—In the 5
case of a request for a certificate of crossing for 6
a border-crossing facility consisting of an elec-7
tric transmission facility, the Secretary of En-8
ergy shall require, as a condition of issuing the 9
certificate of crossing under subparagraph (A), 10
that the border-crossing facility be constructed, 11
connected, operated, or maintained consistent 12
with all applicable policies and standards of— 13
(i) the Electric Reliability Organiza-14
tion and the applicable regional entity; and 15
(ii) any Regional Transmission Orga-16
nization or Independent System Operator 17
with operational or functional control over 18
the border-crossing facility. 19
(3) E
XCLUSIONS.—This subsection shall not 20
apply to any construction, connection, operation, or 21
maintenance of a border-crossing facility for the im-22
port or export of oil or natural gas, or the trans-23
mission of electricity— 24
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(A) if the border-crossing facility is oper-1
ating for such import, export, or transmission 2
as of the date of enactment of this Act; 3
(B) if a permit described in subsection (e) 4
for the construction, connection, operation, or 5
maintenance has been issued; or 6
(C) if an application for a permit described 7
in subsection (e) for the construction, connec-8
tion, operation, or maintenance is pending on 9
the date of enactment of this Act, until the ear-10
lier of— 11
(i) the date on which such application 12
is denied; or 13
(ii) 2 years after the date of enact-14
ment of this Act, if such a permit has not 15
been issued by such date. 16
(4) E
FFECT OF OTHER LAWS .— 17
(A) A
PPLICATION TO PROJECTS .—Nothing 18
in this subsection or subsection (f) shall affect 19
the application of any other Federal statute to 20
a project for which a certificate of crossing for 21
a border-crossing facility is requested under 22
this subsection. 23
(B) N
ATURAL GAS ACT.—Nothing in this 24
subsection or subsection (f) shall affect the re-25
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quirement to obtain approval or authorization 1
under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act 2
(15 U.S.C. 717b, 717f) for the siting, construc-3
tion, or operation of any facility to import or 4
export natural gas. 5
(C) O
IL PIPELINES.—Nothing in this sub-6
section or subsection (f) shall affect the author-7
ity of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-8
sion with respect to oil pipelines under section 9
60502 of title 49, United States Code. 10
(D) S
COPE OF NEPA REVIEW .—Nothing in 11
this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, 12
shall affect the scope of any review required to 13
be conducted under section 102 of the National 14
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 15
4332) with respect to a project for which a cer-16
tificate of crossing for a border-crossing facility 17
is requested under this subsection. 18
(c) I
MPORTATION OR EXPORTATION OF NATURAL 19
G
AS TOCANADA ANDMEXICO.—Section 3(c) of the Nat-20
ural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(c)) (as amended by section 21
1303) is amended by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(3) C
ANADA AND MEXICO .—In the case of an 23
application for the importation of natural gas from, 24
or the exportation of natural gas to, Canada or Mex-25
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ico, the Commission shall grant the application not 1
later than 30 days after the date on which the Com-2
mission receives the complete application.’’. 3
(d) T
RANSMISSION OFELECTRICENERGY TOCAN-4
ADA ANDMEXICO.— 5
(1) R
EPEAL OF REQUIREMENT TO SECURE 6
ORDER.—Section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act 7
(16 U.S.C. 824a(e)) is repealed. 8
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 9
(A) S
TATE REGULATIONS.—Section 202(f) 10
of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824a(f)) 11
is amended by striking ‘‘insofar as such State 12
regulation does not conflict with the exercise of 13
the Commission’s powers under or relating to 14
subsection (e)’’. 15
(B) S
EASONAL DIVERSITY ELECTRICITY 16
EXCHANGE.—Section 602(b) of the Public Util-17
ity Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 18
824a–4(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘the Com-19
mission has conducted hearings and made the 20
findings required under section 202(e) of the 21
Federal Power Act’’ and all that follows 22
through the period at the end and inserting 23
‘‘the Secretary has conducted hearings and 24
finds that the proposed transmission facilities 25
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would not impair the sufficiency of electric sup-1
ply within the United States or would not im-2
pede or tend to impede the coordination in the 3
public interest of facilities subject to the juris-4
diction of the Secretary.’’. 5
(e) N
OPRESIDENTIALPERMITREQUIRED.—No 6
Presidential permit (or similar permit) shall be required 7
pursuant to any provision of law or Executive order for 8
the construction, connection, operation, or maintenance of 9
an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-10
ity, or any border-crossing facility thereof. 11
(f) M
ODIFICATIONS TO AND MAINTENANCE OF EX-12
ISTINGPROJECTS.—No certificate of crossing under sub-13
section (b), or permit described in subsection (e), shall be 14
required for a modification to or maintenance of— 15
(1) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 16
transmission facility that is operating for the import 17
or export of oil or natural gas or the transmission 18
of electricity as of the date of enactment of this Act; 19
(2) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 20
transmission facility for which a permit described in 21
subsection (e) has been issued; or 22
(3) a border-crossing facility for which a certifi-23
cate of crossing has previously been issued under 24
subsection (b). 25
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(g) EFFECTIVEDATES; RULEMAKINGDEADLINES.— 1
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE .—Subsections (b) 2
through (f) and the amendments made by such sub-3
sections shall take effect on the date that is 1 year 4
after the date of enactment of this Act. 5
(2) R
ULEMAKING DEADLINES .—Each relevant 6
official or agency described in subsection (b)(2)(B) 7
shall— 8
(A) not later than 180 days after the date 9
of enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 10
Register notice of a proposed rulemaking to 11
carry out the applicable requirements of sub-12
section (b); and 13
(B) not later than 1 year after the date of 14
enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 15
Register a final rule to carry out the applicable 16
requirements of subsection (b). 17
(h) J
UDICIALREVIEW.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any entity aggrieved by a 19
final agency action taken under this section may ob-20
tain a review of such action by filing a petition for 21
review in— 22
(A) the United States Court of Appeals for 23
any circuit wherein an applicant for authoriza-24
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tion under this section is located or has its 1
principal place of business; or 2
(B) in the United States Court of Appeals 3
for the District of Columbia. 4
(2) P
ETITION DEADLINE.—The petition must 5
be filed not later than 60 days after such action is 6
taken. 7
TITLE IV—OTHER NATURAL 8
RESOURCES 9
SEC. 4001. ROOT AND STEM PROJECTS. 10
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) C
OLLABORATIVE PROCESS .—The term ‘‘col-12
laborative process’’ means a process that— 13
(A) includes multiple interested persons 14
representing diverse interests; and 15
(B)(i) is transparent and nonexclusive; or 16
(ii) meets the requirements for a resource 17
advisory committee under subsections (c) 18
through (f) of section 205 of the Secure Rural 19
Schools and Community Self-Determination Act 20
of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 7125). 21
(2) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 22
means— 23
(A) land of the National Forest System (as 24
defined in section 11(a) of the Forest and 25
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Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 1
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a))); and 2
(B) public lands (as defined in section 103 3
of the Federal Land Policy and Management 4
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)). 5
(3) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-6
retary concerned’’ means, as applicable— 7
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 8
through the Chief of the Forest Service; or 9
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, acting 10
through the Director of the Bureau of Land 11
Management. 12
(b) L
IST OFCONTRACTORS.—The Secretary con-13
cerned shall— 14
(1) maintain a list of non-Federal, third-party 15
contractors that the Secretary concerned can hire in 16
each State to complete the analysis described in sub-17
section (c)(1); and 18
(2) not later than 180 days after the date of 19
enactment of this Act, and every 3 years thereafter, 20
submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural 21
Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Nat-22
ural Resources of the House of Representatives a 23
copy of the list described in paragraph (1). 24
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(c) AGREEMENTS.—If a person submits to the Sec-1
retary concerned a proposal for a project on Federal land 2
that was developed through a collaborative process and 3
that meets local and rural community needs, the Secretary 4
concerned may enter into an agreement with the person, 5
under which— 6
(1) the person initially provides to the Secretary 7
concerned all, or a portion of, the funding necessary 8
to complete any analysis that the Secretary con-9
cerned determines to be necessary under Federal 10
law, including the National Environmental Policy 11
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the En-12
dangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 13
seq.), for the consideration of the proposed project; 14
(2) the Secretary concerned uses the funding 15
provided under paragraph (1) to pay a contractor in-16
cluded on the list maintained under subsection 17
(b)(1) to conduct the analysis described in para-18
graph (1); 19
(3) on completion of the analysis described in 20
paragraph (1), if the Secretary concerned makes a 21
decision to proceed with the project, the Secretary 22
concerned— 23
(A) solicits bids to carry out the project; 24
and 25
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(B) enters into a contract or agreement 1
under section 604 of the Healthy Forests Res-2
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c) to 3
carry out the project; and 4
(4) using any receipts described in subsection 5
(d)(1), the Secretary concerned, to the maximum ex-6
tent practicable, repays to the person the funding 7
initially provided under paragraph (1). 8
(d) A
DDITIONALRELATEDAUTHORITIES.— 9
(1) U
SE OF RECEIPTS.—Any receipts that are 10
generated by a project described in subsection (c) 11
that are normally deposited in the General Fund of 12
the Treasury shall be available for expenditure by 13
the Secretary concerned, without further appropria-14
tion or fiscal year limitation, for the use described 15
in subsection (c)(4). 16
(2) C
ONTRACTORS.—The Secretary concerned 17
may noncompetitively hire a contractor included on 18
the list maintained under subsection (b)(1) to con-19
duct the analysis described in subsection (c)(1). 20
(e) S
AVINGSCLAUSES.— 21
(1) A
UTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY CON -22
CERNED.—The Secretary concerned shall— 23
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(A) determine the sufficiency of any docu-1
ments prepared by a contractor under sub-2
section (c)(2); and 3
(B) retain responsibility for any author-4
izing decision relating to a proposed project de-5
scribed in subsection (c). 6
(2) R
EVIEW AND APPROVAL OF INDEPENDENT 7
THIRD PARTIES.—The Secretary concerned shall 8
verify that there is no conflict of interest between— 9
(A) a person that submits a proposal 10
under subsection (c); and 11
(B) a contractor that the Secretary con-12
cerned hires under paragraph (2) of that sub-13
section to carry out an analysis with respect to 14
that proposal. 15
(3) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS .—The Secretary 16
concerned— 17
(A) shall only use the funding provided to 18
the Secretary concerned under subsection (c)(1) 19
to pay a contractor pursuant to subsection 20
(c)(2); and 21
(B) shall not use any portion of the fund-22
ing provided to the Secretary concerned under 23
subsection (c)(1) to cover any other expense or 24
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cost incurred by the Secretary concerned, in-1
cluding administrative costs. 2
(4) L
IMITATIONS ON REIMBURSEMENTS .—If in-3
sufficient receipts are generated by a project de-4
scribed in subsection (c) to reimburse the person 5
that provided funding under paragraph (1) of that 6
subsection, the Secretary concerned shall not provide 7
additional funding to the person. 8
(f) P
ROMOTION.—Not later than 60 days after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary concerned 10
shall provide guidance to each local field office of the Sec-11
retary concerned for— 12
(1) making stakeholders aware of the authority 13
under this Act; and 14
(2) encouraging use of that authority to meet 15
land management goals. 16
(g) T
REATMENT OF COLLABORATIVEMEMBERS.— 17
For purposes of a civil action relating to a project de-18
scribed in subsection (c), any person that participated in 19
the collaborative process to develop the proposal for the 20
project shall be— 21
(1) entitled to intervene, as of right, in any sub-22
sequent civil action; and 23
(2) considered to be a full participant in any 24
settlement negotiation relating to the project. 25
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(h) SUNSET.—The requirements described in sub-1
section (b) and the authority to enter into an agreement 2
under subsection (c) shall expire on January 1, 2033. 3
SEC. 4002. CONSULTATION UNDER CERTAIN LAND AND RE-4
SOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANS AND LAND 5
USE PLANS. 6
(a) N
ATIONALFORESTSYSTEMLAND AND RE-7
SOURCEMANAGEMENT PLAN.—Section 6 of the Forest 8
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 9
1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604) is amended by adding at the end 10
the following: 11
‘‘(n) C
OMPLETEDFEDERALACTION.—A land and 12
resource management plan for a unit of the National For-13
est System approved, amended, or revised under this sec-14
tion shall not— 15
‘‘(1) be considered to be a continuing Federal 16
agency action; or 17
‘‘(2) constitute a discretionary Federal involve-18
ment or control for a distinct Federal purpose.’’. 19
(b) B
UREAU OFLANDMANAGEMENT LANDUSE 20
P
LANS.—Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and 21
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) is amended 22
by adding at the end the following: 23
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‘‘(g) COMPLETEDFEDERALACTION.—A land man-1
agement plan approved, amended, or revised under this 2
section shall not— 3
‘‘(1) be considered to be a continuing Federal 4
agency action; or 5
‘‘(2) constitute a discretionary Federal involve-6
ment or control for a distinct Federal purpose.’’. 7
SEC. 4003. RENEWAL TERM OF GRAZING PERMITS OR 8
LEASES. 9
Section 402 of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-10
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1752) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘ten years’’ 12
and inserting ‘‘not more than 20 years’’; and 13
(2) in subsection (b)— 14
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 15
by striking ‘‘shorter than ten years’’ and insert-16
ing ‘‘of less than 20 years’’; 17
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 18
the end; 19
(C) in paragraph (2)— 20
(i) by striking ‘‘ten years’’ and insert-21
ing ‘‘20 years’’; and 22
(ii) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end; 23
(D) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 24
paragraph (4); 25
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(E) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 1
following: 2
‘‘(3) the initial environmental analysis under 3
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 4
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with respect to a grazing allot-5
ment, permit, or lease has not been completed; or’’; 6
and 7
(F) in paragraph (4) (as so redesig-8
nated)— 9
(i) in the first proviso, by striking 10
‘‘shorter than ten years’’ and inserting ‘‘of 11
less than 20 years’’; and 12
(ii) in the second proviso— 13
(I) by striking ‘‘shorter than ten 14
years’’ and inserting ‘‘of less than 20 15
years’’; and 16
(II) by striking ‘‘items (1) 17
through (3) of this subsection’’ and 18
inserting ‘‘paragraphs (1) through 19
(4)’’. 20
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SEC. 4004. RENEWAL OF GRAZING PERMITS AND LEASES 1
AND CERTAIN ACTIONS DURING EXTREME 2
NATURAL EVENTS AND DISASTERS. 3
Section 402(h) of the Federal Land Policy and Man-4
agement Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1752(h)) is amended by 5
adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(3) R
ENEWAL.—A categorical exclusion (as 7
defined in section 1508.1 of title 40, Code of Fed-8
eral Regulations (or successor regulations)) under 9
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 10
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall apply with respect to the 11
renewal of a grazing permit or lease under this sec-12
tion, if— 13
‘‘(A) the renewal of the grazing permit or 14
lease is consistent, or substantially consistent, 15
with the use authorized in the permit or lease 16
being renewed; 17
‘‘(B) the renewal of the grazing permit or 18
lease is the same as, or has a minor adjustment 19
in, as determined by the Secretary or the Sec-20
retary of Agriculture, as applicable, the season 21
of use authorized in the permit or lease being 22
renewed; or 23
‘‘(C) the applicable permittee or lessee is 24
in compliance with the terms, conditions, and 25
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applicable regulations of the permit or lease 1
being renewed. 2
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZED USE DURING EMERGENCIES 3
AND NATURAL EVENTS AND DISASTERS .—A categor-4
ical exclusion (as defined in section 1508.1 of title 5
40, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regu-6
lations)) under the National Environmental Policy 7
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall apply to 8
the temporary use of a vacant grazing allotments or 9
other minor adjustment in terms and conditions of 10
a permit or lease necessary to respond and adapt to 11
resource conditions, if— 12
‘‘(A) there is an unforeseen, uncontrollable 13
natural event or disaster (including extreme 14
weather conditions, drought, and infestation), 15
that impedes the use by the permittee or lessee 16
of the grazing allotment under established 17
terms and conditions; 18
‘‘(B) the use of the vacant grazing allot-19
ment or the adjustment in the authorized use 20
would be limited to 2 grazing seasons; 21
‘‘(C) a temporary adjustment in the exist-22
ing season of use to immediately respond to lo-23
calized resource conditions does not fluctuate 24
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more than 14 days prior to, or immediately fol-1
lowing, the existing season of use date; 2
‘‘(D) the permittee or lessee is in compli-3
ance with— 4
‘‘(i) all other terms and conditions of 5
the applicable permit or lease; and 6
‘‘(ii) any applicable regulations; 7
‘‘(E) the vacant grazing allotment consid-8
ered for temporary use pursuant to section 405 9
has been assessed or evaluated; and 10
‘‘(F) the use of the vacant grazing allot-11
ment or adjustment in the authorized use does 12
not alter the original grazing allotment of the 13
permittee or lessee.’’. 14
SEC. 4005. WITHDRAWAL OF BLM PROPOSED RULE. 15
The Director of the Bureau of Land Management— 16
(1) shall withdraw the proposed rule of the Bu-17
reau of Land Management entitled ‘‘Conservation 18
and Landscape Health’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 19583 (April 19
3, 2023)); and 20
(2) may not take any action to finalize, imple-21
ment, or enforce the proposed rule described in 22
paragraph (1) or any substantially similar rule. 23
Æ 
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