Public-lands sales, faster permitting included in Senate GOP plan
A sign in a Senate hallway. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Senate Republicans unveiled reconciliation details on Wednesday proposing public lands sales, steep cuts to Energy Department funding and sped-up permitting for companies willing to pay a fee.
Why it matters: The Energy and Natural Resources Committee text is mostly in agreement with House's cuts but sets up a intraparty clash over land sales.
Driving the news: The committee text would direct the Bureau of Land Management to sell 0.5% to 0.75% of certain BLM lands and the Forest Service to sell 0.5% to 0.75% of its property across 11 states.
- It proposes $660 million until September 2028 for a new "Energy Dominance Financing" program.
- That program would make loan guarantees to ''retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure" that's no longer in operation as well as "enable operating energy infrastructure," the bill says.
The Senate also would repeal the DOE Loan Program Office's Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Financing program that the IRA set up.
- The House bill advanced last month simply rescinded any unobligated IRA money for the LPO.
What's inside: The ENR text proposes taking back unobligated IRA dollars, including for the financing of large transmission projects and grants for clean manufacturing and vehicle technology.
- Like the House version, the bill would allow companies that pay a $1 million fee to receive automatic approval to export liquefied natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries.
- FERC would retain its authority to issues permits for LNG facilities.
The other side: League of Conservation Voters conservation program director America Fitzpatrick accused GOP senators of "promoting a pay-to-play scheme for polluters that reeks of corruption" and "selling off our public lands to Big Polluters to drill, log, and mine in our country's most pristine landscapes without oversight or recourse."
