The House is set to take up several energy bills this week. In the wake of an Energy Information Report (EIA) report released last Friday which again showed decreasing energy production on federal lands, the House bills offer significant opportunities to correct President Obama’s “all of the above” but “none of the below” energy policy.
Opponents of the pieces of legislation are calling them industry wish lists, but these free-market reforms are an instance where rising tides lifts all boats. For instance, Representative Cory Gardner’s (R–CO) Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act would address the 24 applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) that have long been on hold at the Department of Energy. Even though the Department of Energy (DOE) has determined that permitting LNG exports would be a net benefit to the country, it has failed to make a determination on some of these applications for over 2 years now. The bill would require action from the DOE within 30 days following environmental reviews and would also expand expedited approval to export LNG to the World Trade Organization. The case for lifting the DOE’s arbitrary permitting role or at least expediting the process has only been strengthened by the role the U.S. can play in increasing global supply, allowing European nations to diversify their suppliers and lessen their dependence on a hostile Russia.
A second bill, the North American Energy Infrastructure Act, would also increase access to affordable and reliable energy and expand American energy markets by simplifying the approval process for oil, natural gas, and electricity transmission infrastructure that crosses international borders. President Obama has turned what was otherwise a straightforward process to study and permit such projects into a political circus, as displayed by the Keystone XL Pipeline decision that has been delayed for over five years now. Representatives Fred Upton (R–MI) and Gene Green (D–TX) have proposed a process that would eliminate the presidential permit currently required and replace it with a “certificate of crossing” that relevant regulators would have to act on within 120 days of completing environmental reviews. Projects already underway, like the Keystone XL Pipeline, could apply starting July 1, 2015, or upon a permit denial. Such a reform would help de-politicize what are otherwise decisions between businesses and their customers.
Finally, Representative Doc Hastings’s (R–WA) bill, Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America that Works Act, aims to increase access to the nation’s energy resources. While oil and gas production on state and private lands have increased, the undue regulatory burden and uncertainty imposed on companies seeking to invest in exploration and production on federal lands has produced opposite results. The EIA’s latest report showed that production of conventional fuels decreased 7 percent last year, including a 9 percent drop in both natural gas and coal production. It reveals a trend that the Obama Administration’s energy policy has been consistently out of touch with the reality of America’s great energy wealth. Representative Hastings’s bill would reform the leasing and permitting processes for oil and natural gas, as well as open (or in the case of Virginia, reopen) offshore areas for lease sales.
Rather than “leveling” the playing field by countering special treatment of resources like solar and wind with special treatment for conventional sources like oil and natural gas, reform is needed to reduce political intervention in energy markets broadly.
Taking politics out of the picture, scaling back government intervention, and allowing the private sector to meet American’s energy needs are big steps in the right direction toward affordable and reliable energy and the economic success that depends on it.
