| It’s been a busy February in the offices of ConservAmerica and we’re looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring.
Jeff Kupfer, our president, penned a great op-ed along with our conservation allies Collin O’Mara and Benji Backer and about what the GOP conservative movement has been up to in Congress. In the piece, the authors discuss the strong support conservation issues have nationally and call for advancing the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act and Recovering America’s Wildlife Act as well supporting increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
We hosted a discussion with the Federalist Society on the Trump administration’s recommendations to streamline and modernize the 50-year-old National Environmental Protection Act, NEPA, which attracted more than 80 participants and listeners and was picked up in the news. The administration’s proposal would improve coordination between federal agencies and limit the time and length of the NEPA process. We’ll be talking more about improving the NEPA process in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
As part of our Congressional Roundtable series with the Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, ConservAmerica hosted a staff briefing on Capitol Hill about the challenges with existing abandoned mine cleanup laws as well as changes to improve their protection of the land and waters of the West. The panel included representatives of the mining sector alongside community groups. The biggest hurdle to cleaning up legacy minds is not the mining industry or environmentalists, but the piles of federal red tape. Senator Cory Gardner’s (R-CO) Good Samaritan legislation encourage the voluntary clean-up of orphaned hard-rock mines by providing a limited waiver of certain legal liabilities under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) that too often have a chilling effect. EPA has adopted a policy of using administrative tools to encourage Good Samaritan cleanups. However, these tools are limited and not able to provide the same protections and incentives as federal legislation, which is why ConservAmerica supports Senator Gardner’s efforts to advance Good Samaritan legislation in the 116th Congress.
Speaking of the Senate, we congratulated Kate MacGregor on her bipartisan Senate confirmation as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Kate has been a tireless advocate for America’s public lands and the responsible management of its natural resources ever since she came to Washington, D.C., from her home state of Pennsylvania to work in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007. No one in Washington better understands the dual mission of the Interior Department to protect and manage our nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage than Kate MacGregor. Here is our full press release on her Senate confirmation.
Roosevelt Conservation Caucus Vice Chair Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released her long anticipated clean energy bill on Thursday. The legislation packages over 50 bills that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee reviewed last year - some go back even further. The American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) represents the most significant step toward modernizing America’s energy policies in over a decade. Key provisions include renewable energy, energy storage, carbon capture, and support for nuclear energy. The legislation also addresses our critical mineral dependence on foreign suppliers. Senator Murkowski has long been a champion of commonsense solutions to some of our nation’s biggest environmental and energy challenges, so we’re happy to see her committee advancing bipartisan packages with Ranking Member Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Another great piece of bipartisan legislation is the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act. The bill, part of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) recent climate change package, would boost research into advanced technologies to capture carbon emissions directly from the air and for re-using carbon dioxide in cement and steel production. The USE IT Act was introduced by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). House Republicans are working on a number of market-based approaches to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change and will be issuing additional legislative packages in the coming months. We look forward to working with members of the House and the Senate to advance achievable policies and get them to President Trump’s desk for signing.
LAST WORD: Bret Kugelmass and the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Impact Center this week announced a new effort to show how nuclear energy can provide clean and cost-effective energy with a more streamlined construction process. The OPEN100 project is the world’s first open-source blueprint for the design, construction, and financing of nuclear power plants. More on the project and the EIC can be found in Kugelmass’ recent Medium post. |
