Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The House GOP's energy and environment spending bills are loaded with policy riders and proposed cuts that are worth watching.
Why it matters: Most of these aren't going anywhere with the Senate, but the bills — released Thursday — offer a neat preview of how Republicans would prioritize spending if they sweep the November elections.
- Plus, a handful of riders could become real negotiating wedges.
Driving the news: The Interior-environment title would target EPA for a 20% cut, slashing its fiscal 2025 budget down to just $7.3 billion, per GOP summaries.
- The agency already got a 10% haircut to $9.2 billion in the fiscal 2024 spending deal, at a time when it's sending a whole bunch of regulations and IRA money out the door.
- Interior would get a much more modest overall trim to $14.7 billion, but BLM, Fish and Wildlife, and the Park Service would all be in for significant cuts.
- In the energy-water bill, DOE would see its topline budget cut roughly $300 million to $49.9 billion.
What we're watching: The biggest political fight here will be on a rider to halt the Biden administration's LNG permits pause by giving FERC sole authority on export terminal applications.
- Other policy ideas have some bipartisan support on the Hill already, like a provision to let mining companies store waste and use land on claim sites — whether or not there's evidence of mineral deposits underneath.
- It's one of several Hill proposals to undo the so-called Rosemont decision. Catherine Cortez Masto has a similar bill on the Senate side.
- Republicans also proposed putting "entity of concern" protections on DOE grant programs, an idea that could gain real traction given the Hill's anti-China sentiment.
And here's a selection of the partisan funding prohibitions from the Interior-environment title: EPA auto emissions and power plant rules; Endangered Species Act designations; using the social cost of carbon in cost-benefit analyses; and BLM's landscape health rule.
Zoom in: DOE's national security, science and nuclear budgets would all go up, but Republicans are once again targeting wind, solar and energy efficiency programs for cuts.
- The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office would get $1.96 billion — a $1.5 billion cut compared to fiscal 2024 (House Republicans targeted EERE for a similar haircut last year too).
- The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations would similarly see its budget cut nearly in half, to $27.5 million.
- The energy-water bill also proposes to repurpose IRA and infrastructure law money for advanced reactor demonstration programs.
What's next: Friday's subcommittee markups will likely be uneventful. The full Approps Committee will take up the bills after the July 4 recess.
