Snapping Back the Regulatory Onslaught

Despite the Biden administration’s recent halt on permit approvals for liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals, other recent announcements show that pressure from the public, trade groups, state officials, and Congress can hamstring the administration’s worst proposals. Here’s a quick review of the latest actions, good and bad.
 

• Gas stove ban halted: The Department of Energy (DOE) rolled back a proposed ban on gas stoves last week in its final appliance standards rule. Due to blowback from the public, notably chefs, home cooks, and grassroots campaigns, only 3% of gas stoves on the market today will be affected – not 94% as proposed last year. The Alliance submitted robust public comments on the rule, which helped inform the agency of its misguided proposal.

• Natural Asset Companies Rule withdrawn: Similarly, due to push back from state officials and Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission two weeks ago withdrew its proposed rule to approve the creation of Natural Asset Companies (NAC) to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. If advanced the proposal would have allowed NACs to monetize ecological values on public, private, and tribal lands for “sustainable” activities and to prohibit productive activities such as oil and natural gas development. Fortunately state officials in Utah raised the red flags and Rep. Harriett Hageman, Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, Senators Risch, Crapo, and Ricketts, Western Caucus, and others provided strong pushback from the Hill that tanked the rule. Their combined efforts halted the SEC’s rush to advance this obscure rule before the public could understand what was happening.

 
These are big wins, but overreaching decisions by the administration keep coming:

• LNG permit pause is about politics: The president’s new ”pause” on permit approvals for LNG export terminals shows the White House is motivated by election-year politics and social media influencers rather than the climate, which is why even the Washington Post opposed the decision. In the United States, fuel switching from coal to natural gas is the number one reason greenhouse gas emissions are down. Our allies in Europe need LNG to power their societies, otherwise, they’ll turn to coal  as Germany has done.
  
  In response, the Alliance joined a coalition of trade associations in writing a letter to support the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act introduced by Rep. August Pfluger. The bill would get DOE out of the export licensing business, leaving permitting just to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

 

• Management plans close off millions of acres: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Wyoming is proposing to close off 2.5 million acres from oil and natural gas leasing in a recent Resource Management Plan (RMP) amendment. As a similar plan on the West Slope of Colorado attempts to close 1.6 million acres, the land use planning process is becoming a way for BLM to enact a long-term ban on leasing. Likewise, species plans are being used to close access, as a Gunnison Sage Grouse RMP amendment would close off another 741,100 acres in Colorado and Utah and a Big Game amendment contemplates closing as much as another 5.7 million acres in Colorado, although BLM backed off that extreme number. We anticipate other plans to do the same, including the Greater Sage Grouse plans expected later this year in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

 
Our industry is facing an onslaught of regulations stemming from President Biden’s “whole-of government approach,” but meaningful change can occur when Congress, state officials, trade associations, and grassroots campaigns work as a check and balance on the administration.

Author

Aaron Johnson, Vice President of Public and Legislative Affairs