During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) spoke about President Trump's executive order declaring a national energy emergency.
00:00Now this is a gentleman from Oregon. Ms. Dexter for five minutes. Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you again for this hearing today. I am heartened to hear the consensus that we need to use data, technology, and common sense to design a clear administrative process that works better for permitting.
00:16That is not however what this administration is trying to do and I just want to be clear. Public engagement is being gutted to give handouts to oil, gas, and mining companies and it's just offensive and irresponsible.
00:28Mr. Mergen, on President Trump's first day in office he declared an energy emergency. I'm not sure what emergency we're in but we'll leave that for another day as one of the, as the number one producer of oil and gas in the world.
00:43In response to this so-called emergency the Department of Interior issued what they are calling alternative arrangements for NEPA compliance. The Bureau of Land Management approved a uranium mine in just 11 days.
00:56Mr. Mergen, do you believe there was any legitimate consideration of public concerns, tribal consultation, or consideration of alternatives in that 11-day process?
01:07No, I do not.
01:09And thank you for that. And can you tell me about the precedent for this? Under what circumstances have alternative arrangements been used in the past and why is this one different?
01:18Yeah, there is a, you can, the CEQ, which has at various times done a good job of collecting information and at other times a very poor job, has kept information about the way alternative arrangements have been deployed historically.
01:36And by and large, those arrangements have been deployed in response to natural disasters. They have been deployed in response to, you know, catastrophes like fires and the like.
01:49And here we're seeing it leveraged for an energy emergency. And yet there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that emergency.
02:01And so it's a radical departure. And I think, you know, to those folks who may agree with these streamlining efforts, I would say it creates enormous litigation risk.
02:10The Supreme Court has told us again and again, told the Biden administration again and again, when you do things that are out of the norm, sort of extraordinary, you are going to lose in court.
02:22And that is exactly what this administration has done.
02:25Thank you for that. And I just want to, I'm not sure how much time I have, Mr. Chair.
02:30I'm not either. We're trying to figure out the clock situation out.
02:33I'm showing two minutes and 30 seconds remaining here.
02:36I'll assume we've got at least that much. So an effective permitting process clearly is essential for clean energy, lowering emissions, reducing energy costs.
02:46And at the same time, development must be paired with early meaningful engagement from local communities and tribal nations.
02:54Mr. Merkin, how do we strike the right balance between moving essential development forward?
02:59We've been talking about this somewhat already today, while still being able to consult with the public and make sure that they have a meaningful voice, but not a burdensome voice in the process.
03:11Yeah. Thank you for the question, because I totally agree that there are times at which public engagement is played out and burdens the permitting process.
03:22And I think that the lessons we can draw from those examples relate to how early the engagement occurred, how much work was done at the front end.
03:32And I do agree with Mr. Huffman, who indicated that this understanding the community is a part of the due diligence that any project developer undergoes.
03:43And figuring out how to communicate with that community, the benefits of your project, the burdens of that project, is really important.
03:51FERC has recently adopted a process to engage earlier, right?
03:56And that process has shown a lot of potential.
03:59And you started off your comments by noting the need for information.
04:04And I go back to that again, too, because we see the administration stripping down information.
04:09If we can direct the public to information about the effects of an action that have already been collected, we can make their engagement effective or maybe even mitigate the need for that kind of comment altogether.
04:23No, I very much appreciate that.
04:24Well, the gentle lady says, Stan, when the clock was reset, you had a minute 20.
04:29So when it gets down to three, your time will be expired.
04:32We'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
04:34I appreciate that.
04:35So I just want to double down on that because I think data informed decision making has to be where we are headed for transparency and accountability.
04:43And so I'm hearing that across the board.
04:45I also think that equitable application of those processes, like with the IPAC and other formulations, we cannot and must not put the thumb on the scale for oil and gas while handicapping others.
05:00I would just offer the last question to you because I think I magically did get extra time.
05:05But what strategies do you think would be most efficient and effective for getting public engagement?
05:12Is it using technologies ahead of time?
05:15I would love your insights in that, Mr. Morgan.
05:17Yeah, for sure.
05:18Technology makes a huge difference.
05:20You know, we've talked about IPAC several times today.
05:22And if you look at that, it's so common sense.
05:25It's an ESA tool and it leverages technology in a way that absolutely streamlines decision making for project proponents.
05:35But also tells the public about the the environment that's going to be impacted.
05:40And I think technology is the way forward.
05:42Very good.
05:43The last thing I want to just add is it would be helpful, I believe, to note when Clean Water Act or Clean Air Act or other things are the burden and not NEPA, because I think NEPA is being unfortunately mischaracterized as being the handicap in many of these processes.
