The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources today held an oversight hearing on the "Obama Administration’s Actions Against the Spruce Coal Mine: Canceled Permits, Lawsuits and Lost Jobs." The hearing focused on the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented move to revoke a previously issued coal permit that would create hundreds of jobs in Appalachia. A… Read more »

Today, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held an oversight hearing on the “Future of the National Mall.” Witnesses at the hearing discussed a broad prospective on the future of the National Mall including the need for cautious deliberation and Congressional consideration of potential changes and additions to the historic area. “Each year Congress must… Read more »

Today, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) sent a series of letters to the Obama Administration requesting further information on how much the federal government spends on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-related litigation and settlement costs. The ESA has become increasingly driven by litigation and is used by special interest groups as a way to bring hundreds… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »