Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman said he may examine royalties for hardrock mining on federal lands to generate revenue for the GOP's big energy and tax push.
Why it matters: Miners extracting energy transition metals like copper, nickel or cobalt operate under a law that's more than 150 years old and don't get charged a federal royalty — unlike coal, oil and gas.
- The longstanding effort to create one has been stuck in limbo for years amid industry opposition.
Driving the news: Westerman isn't endorsing the idea quite yet, but he brought it up as a possible way to generate revenue in reconciliation.
- "I'm not going to come out today and say, 'Yeah, we should be charging royalty fees on minerals and elements coming off of federal lands.' But there may be something there," he told reporters during a lengthy conversation Tuesday off the House floor.
- More broadly, he listed expanding federal lands mining, oil and gas leasing and forestry as the big opportunities for his committee in reconciliation.
The big picture: Democrats and environmental groups have tried for a long time to overhaul the 1872 General Mining Law.
- They tried a few years ago to create a hardrock mining royalty in their own reconciliation bill but were stymied by opposition from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
- Then the Biden administration issued a report in 2023 calling for a leasing system and a royalty as high as 8%, drawing instant pushback from the mining industry.
For those reasons, Westerman's comments should be taken with a grain of salt in the early days of this reconciliation push.
- Still, any movement on the issue would be significant, given the failure of congressional reform efforts.
- "I think it sounds like he's fishing," Sen. John Hickenlooper told Axios. "And he's a good fisherman."
Zoom in: Westerman also said Republicans will likely move to reverse the Biden administration's offshore drilling ban via reconciliation if President-elect Trump can't do it himself.
- "It doesn't really seem to be something that the Trump administration can undo through executive order" or that Hill Republicans can roll back via the Congressional Review Act, he said.
- But, he added, "there's definitely a budget nexus to that."
What we're watching: Westerman is taking on a role in the GOP reconciliation push that goes beyond Natural Resources.
- He said he's been asked to do member education and participate in the Republican Study Committee's efforts to coordinate the legislation among committees.
- And he remains a top GOP negotiator on permitting and energy issues.
- Westerman said he's had conversations with Senate Democrats already about restarting talks on a permitting bill.
