COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
10:00 a.m.

• Committee Votes - On the Motion to Authorize the Issuance of Subpoenas (3/28/2012)
• Press Release - Committee Approves Motion Giving Chairman Authority to Issue Subpoenas on Two Oversight Investigations Impacting American Jobs and Energy Production (3/28/2012)
• Press Release - Chairman Hastings Announces Full Committee Meeting Next Week to Consider Subpoenas to Interior Department (3/22/2012)
• Committee Investigation - The Obama Administration's Effort to Rewrite Regulations on Coal Production
• Committee Investigation - The Obama Administration's Decision to Include Gulf Drilling Moratorium in Interior Report

BUSINESS MEETING:

• "To consider a motion to authorize the Chairman to issue duces tecum subpoenas for the production of documents relating to investigations regarding: 1) the Secretary of the Interior’s decision and the process to rewrite the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule under the Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act; and 2) the process used in the preparation of a Department of the Interior report on offshore oil and natural gas operations under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that implied that peer reviewers from the National Academy of Engineers had endorsed an offshore oil and natural gas drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico."

OPENING STATEMENT:

The Honorable Doc Hastings
Chairman

The Honorable Doug Lamborn
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Chairman

COMMITTEE ACTION:

The Committee on Natural Resources met in an open session on Wednesday, March 28, 2012, to consider:

A motion to authorize the Chairman to issue duces tecum subpoenas for the production of documents relating to investigations regarding: 1) the Secretary of the Interior’s decision and the process to rewrite the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule under the Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act; and 2) the process used in the preparation of a Department of the Interior report on offshore oil and natural gas operations under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that implied that peer reviewers from the National Academy of Engineers had endorsed an offshore oil and natural gas drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The motion was APPROVED by a roll call vote 23 yeas and 17 nays.

BACKGROUND:

Chairman Doc Hastings announced a Full Committee business meeting to consider a motion to authorize the Chairman to issue subpoenas for the production of documents relating to two of the Committee's oversight investigations. The more than year-long investigations relate to the Obama Administration’s rewrite of a coal production regulation and why an Obama Administration report that recommended a six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico was edited to make it appear as though the moratorium was supported by a panel of engineering experts when in fact it was not. In the investigation, specific document requests have been made to the Department of the Interior. The Department has not met a single deadline for producing all of the requested information and continues to withhold the vast majority of requested materials.