House Republicans Call on Senate to Pass Energy Measure, Revive US Mining

Visitors to the Good Enough Mine explore the same areas early silver-miners did in Tombstone, Ariz. Courtesy of Good Enough Mine

Regulatory and judicial reforms adopted by the House in HR 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, and being proposed in other legislation are urgently needed to unshackle America’s mining industry before the nation faces significant economic and national security challenges, House Republicans are warning.

However, these regulatory revamps are being resisted in the Democrat-controlled Senate and by the Biden administration, which ironically is fueling skyrocketing demand for critical minerals with its “green energy” inducements for electric vehicles (EV) and renewable energy-generating capacity, according to the Republican lawmakers.

“We only control the House of Representatives. We pass a lot of good bills, but they’re falling into a black hole over there in the Senate because they won’t take it up,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said during a congressional field hearing on critical mineral development in Goodyear, Arizona, on July 21. “This ‘Green New Deal’ that they’ve got, you know, is a $1.7 trillion infrastructure bill where they only put $600 billion to fix the roads and bridges—and it really ain’t doing that. The rest went so that they can push EVs on you.”

The House Natural Resources Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee staged the two-hour hearing in mineral-rich northeastern Arizona because “access to critical and hardrock minerals is one of the most important topics facing our country,” according to subcommittee Chair Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).

“There is unprecedented global demand for minerals and America is increasingly reliant on the Chinese Communist Party for our mineral supply,” he said, also noting that elected Democrats under Mr. Biden are “shutting down mineral projects across the nation.”

“The anti-mining actions by the Biden administration hurt the American economy, threaten our national security, and push mineral production abroad where environmental and labor standards pale in comparison to our own.”

Rapid growth in renewable energy technologies is projected to drive demand for the top 50 minerals defined as “critical” by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) by more than six times the current demand by 2046. Mr. Gosar warned of a headlong rush “exacerbated by the national goals pledged by the Biden administration and other international organizations.”

The "Old South Shaft Ore Quarry, Face of Tough-Nut Mine, part of Tombstone, Ariz. Public Domain

Critical Shortage in Critical Minerals

According to the USGS, the United States is 100 percent import-reliant for 12 of the 50 top critical minerals and more than 50 percent dependent on imports for 32 others.

China either partially or totally controls 43 of the top 50 critical minerals; it’s the world’s largest exporter of 26 of the top 50 critical minerals.

“The Biden administration is putting forth mandates on electric vehicles, mandates for more solar, for more wind. They’re funneling hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars into subsidies for those programs, and they claim that they are for domestic mining. Yet on the other hand, they’re shutting down mines,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said.

“You can’t have it both ways, although they do because people aren’t paying attention. I truly believe that the policies that the Biden administration and Democrats are putting forward benefit China, do not benefit the United States, and we better wake up.

“We better wake up, we better get our act together, because otherwise, we’re going to be speaking Mandarin, and I don’t want that. We’re going to be totally reliant on them.”

Ms. Lesko joined Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and several others on the panel calling for federal agencies to cede much of their regulatory oversight to states.

Mr. Biggs said his proposed Federal Land Freedom Act “would allow states to voluntarily take on permitting for projects on federal lands within their state boundaries.”

“Bringing these decisions down to the state levels is essential,” said Jeremy Harrell, chief strategy officer for the Washington-based energy policy firm ClearPath. “We know it’s more efficient, and it can have the same standards” imposed by federal agencies.

States would “ultimately have to do the same rigorous work but the people, the states, know the geology better,” he said. “We’ve got to hold the agencies like the EPA accountable. They like to blame resources as a restriction. This Congress actually tried to bolster that [in HR 1] so we can streamline the permitting process. We need to cut out litigation, we need to shorten the scope of things that challenge these type of projects and bring more of these decisions at the state level.”

Regulatory, Judicial Reform

As with many other issues such as immigration reform, Congress must be more assertive in exerting “oversight authority and its regulatory authority to rein in the out-of-control bureaucracy” and an activist executive branch under President Joe Biden, according to Mr. Harrell.

“Extraction is necessary if we’re going to remain a strong economy,” Mr. Biggs said, “[and to determine] if we’re going to go down in history as a self-immolating country or whether we’re going to hold it together and become once again—a free and prosperous nation.”

He asked University of Arizona School of Mining and Mineral Resources Director Misael Cabrera how much more copper goes into EVs than gas-fueled vehicles.

“On average, an electric vehicle contains four times the amount of copper as a traditional internal combustion engine,” Mr. Cabrera said, noting that the United States—and Arizona in particular—led the world in copper production in the 1980s but is now “not even in the top 10.”

The Lavender Pit at Copper Queen Mine, which opened in 1877 and was run by the Phelps Dodge Corp. from 1879 to 1975, is seen in Bisbee, Ariz., on July 24, 2020. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Harrell and Del Sol Refining Inc. President and CEO Craig Wiita said the permitting reforms in HR 1 are essential if the United States is to stay competitive in mining.

“When you’re waiting seven to 10 years for permits in the U.S., you basically deplete 25 percent of your reserves just in getting permits,” Mr. Wiita said. “A lot of companies can’t make that up,” and proposed mining projects are withdrawn.

Tort reform is also “really essential as we move forward,” according to Mr. Harrell.

“The judicial system gets weaponized to block us [from] development,” he said.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), touting his proposed bill to get the USGS to list copper as a critical mineral, said it was confounding that “government interference is really causing a lot of the issues that are unnecessary.

“We keep hearing over and over again how this is in our own making and how we’re putting ourselves at a disadvantage against foreign countries that are not friendly to us,” he said.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said, “I’m going to be honest with you guys, this seems like one more example of self-sabotage in this country. It really does, and sometimes, I don’t know if it’s intentional or if we’re just so foolish that we can’t figure it out.”

No Democrats attended the field hearing.

“Not a single one will come out here and see you face-to-face to understand one-on-one what you’re feeling and what you’re going through,” Mr. Collins said. ”I think that’s very telling.”

Mr. Crane said, “This is a Republican-dominated panel today. This issue, because of its severity, should not be a partisan issue. We should have independents, Democrats, and Republicans supporting the responsible usage of our own natural resources.”