Today, the Committee advanced two bills to bring greater certainty to the mining industry and shield economic development and energy projects from politically motivated actions.

On January 16, 2016, former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced a moratorium on federal coal leasing. H.R. 1778 (Rep. Liz Cheney) corrects this injustice by requiring congressional approval of any Secretarial Order imposing a coal leasing moratorium on federal lands.

“I'm pleased H.R. 1778, a bill I introduced to ensure no future moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands can be imposed without Congressional approval, passed the House Natural Resources Committee today. For far too long Obama-era energy policies attacked our state's fossil fuel industry. Coal is a national treasure and President Obama's war on coal did real damage to the livelihoods of the people and communities in our state. This overdue legislation will protect jobs in my state, prevent future unnecessary drags on economic growth, and ensure continued access to affordable energy for homes and businesses across the United States,” Rep. Cheney (R-WY) said.

H.R. 3117 (Rep. Evan Jenkins), the “Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act of 2017,” prohibits the use of ambiguous metrics in environmental rulemakings such as the social cost of carbon, social cost of methane and social cost of nitrous oxide.

“The Obama administration used biased estimates like the social cost of carbon to push through its anti-coal regulations. These models hide the true economic costs of the EPA’s energy and environmental rules, which have eliminated jobs in West Virginia and raised the price of electricity for families. We are now one step closer to ensuring that no future administration can hide behind flawed formulas to justify their job-killing regulations and bring more transparency to the rulemaking process,” Rep. Jenkins (R-WV) said.

Click here to view full markup action.