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Chairman Hastings Visits Texas for HEAT's American Energy Tour

| Posted in Press Release

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today joined Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco (TX-23) and Congressman Mike Conaway (TX-11) in Midland, TX for the “2012 American Energy and Jobs Tour: Promoting the Economy Through American Energy” led by the House Energy Action Team (HEAT). The Members toured a drilling rig and hydraulic fracturing site and then held…

Government Scientist Believed Impacts from Arizona Uranium Mining "Grossly Overestimated" in Obama Administration Document

| Posted in Press Release

Internal emails obtained by the House Natural Resources Committee raise significant questions into the science used by the Obama Administration to justify a 20-year ban on uranium development on one million acres of federal land in Arizona. In the emails, scientists within the National Park Service discuss how the potential environmental impacts were “grossly overestimated” in the…

Acting Inspector General for Interior Department Questioned on Role in Producing Report that Recommended Gulf Drilling Moratorium

| Posted in Press Release

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) yesterday sent a letter to the Department of the Interior’s Acting Inspector General (IG) Mary Kendall to question her about discrepancies between her testimony before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and documents recently provided to the Committee that suggest she was involved in the process of producing the…

USA Today: Interior inspector defends impartiality in report probe

| Posted in In Case You Missed It

Interior inspector defends impartiality in report probe By: Gregory Korte USA Today May 23, 2012 When questions came up about how the White House edited an Interior Department report to justify a moratorium on offshore drilling, acting Inspector General Mary Kendall investigated and reported back to Congress only that the report "could have been more clearly worded." Now documents…

Northwest Federal Forest Regulations Have Devastated Forest Health, Local Economies With Little Benefit to Northern Spotted Owl

| Posted in Press Release

Today, the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held an oversight field hearing in Longview, Washington on, “Failed Federal Forest Policies: Endangering Jobs, Forests and Species.” The hearing examined how federal implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan and Endangered Species Act has affected local economies, forest health and the Northern Spotted Owl. “To put it…

Chairman Hastings' Op-Ed in The Washington Times: Time to improve the Endangered Species Act

| Posted in Op-Eds and Speeches

HASTINGS: Time to improve the Endangered Species Act By House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings Washington Times May 18, 2012 When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon, he spoke about the importance of preserving “the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” I believe that goal is as important…

Documents and Audio Recordings Kept Secret by Interior Department Raise Further Questions into Obama Administration's Rewrite of Coal Production Regulation

| Posted in Press Release

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today released internal documents and audio recordings obtained by the Committee through outside sources, which raise further questions into the highly unusual manner in which the Obama Administration is rewriting a coal production regulation, the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule. The documents detail “catastrophic” impacts to…

Committee Passes Mineral Production and Indian Land Energy Bills

| Posted in Press Release

In the spirit of the House Republicans’ American Energy Initiative effort, the House Natural Resources Committee today passed the Natural Strategic and Critical Minerals Protection Act and the Native American Energy Act, with bipartisan support, to expand critical mineral production and empower Indian tribes to increase energy production on their tribal lands. The bills would reduce…

Committee Passes Three Bills to Expand Onshore Energy Production to Create Jobs, Help Lower Gasoline Prices

| Posted in Press Release

In the spirit of the House Republicans’ American Energy Initiative effort, the House Natural Resources Committee today passed three bills, with bipartisan support, to expand onshore energy production, lower gasoline prices and create new American jobs. The bills would reduce burdensome government hurdles and streamline duplicative and unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to onshore American…