Unleashing American energy and mineral dominance

OPINION:

The American people asked, and the House Republican majority delivered by passing H.R. 1, the Bipartisan Lower Energy Costs Act, which includes my own bill, the Permitting for Mining Needs (PERMIT-MN) Act, through the House of Representatives. This bipartisan bill does just what its title says: it makes Americans’ lives affordable and lets us get red tape out of the way to keep building the infrastructure we so desperately need.

As the Chairman of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, it is a great privilege to have a direct impact on moving our country forward with commonsense energy policies. My subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes energy development across our great nation. This means mining for the various minerals we need for everyday life; drilling for the oil and gas we use to heat our homes and farms and fuel our vehicles; and generation of energy on federal lands.

And this Chairmanship is especially important to my district. We have been mining for iron for the last 140 years, helped build this country, and won two world wars with minerals from the Iron Range in Minnesota. Today, the Iron Range accounts for 80% of America’s steelmaking alone. And, occurring alongside our iron, are massive, untapped deposits of minerals needed for national security, energy generation, healthcare, everyday life, and more. In fact, in northern Minnesota alone, we have 95% of America’s nickel, almost 90% of America’s cobalt, 75% of America’s platinum, and more than one-third of our nickel.

However, this administration and the broken permitting process are simply not letting us mine our minerals. In the district I represent, we have one mining project on year 20 of endless permitting and litigation. For two decades, it’s undergone a rigorous environmental review process and has won every single lawsuit thrown its direction. And we have another project 10 years in on federal land that had its federal leases pulled and was slapped with a 20-year ban from the Biden administration on taconite, copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and more.

While we have a dire need for mine permitting reform, H.R. 1 also addresses the need for permitting reform across all sectors. Our energy grid is vulnerable and we need more transmission built to deliver power from power plants to homes and businesses. Yet, it’s taking years for any sort of project to get done. For example, the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line is on its seventh year of permitting, just to complete a remaining mile-long segment in Iowa. Whether it be mines, transmission lines, roads and bridges, refineries, forest management, farming, or more, we desperately need permitting reform.

Having these projects wither on the vine are what makes everyday life expensive for Americans. Need liquid fuels for your car? We need to permit rights-of-ways for oil and gas projects. Want lower power bills? We need to permit projects like the Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior, Wisconsin. Want more wind or solar energy? We need to permit mining projects so we can access our minerals here.

Enter the bipartisan H.R. 1. Americans reminded us during the election about these issues, and we delivered. We moved the bill’s sections through regular order, meaning we held oversight hearings, legislative hearings, markups, and consideration on the Floor. We had witnesses from the mining sector, from labor, from public works employees, from the clean power sector, and more. Everybody had buy-in.

Additionally, this bill is key to making America competitive when it comes to energy and mineral production. We are currently over reliant on Communist China for minerals and on nations like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for our other energy needs, risking both our energy and national security. Instead of relying on the Chinese Communist Party for our minerals, H.R. 1 will empower the American workforce to mine American resources with American technology, securing our energy future.

And now, it’s time to keep moving forward. It’s time for the Senate to continue building on our progress by moving the Bipartisan Lower Energy Costs Act one step further to becoming the law of the land. If our Senators value lower energy prices, building renewable energy infrastructure in a timely fashion with domestically mined minerals, and returning power back to Americans from the broken bureaucracy, they will build on our across-the-aisle momentum and pass H.R. 1.

• U.S. Representative Pete Stauber, Minnesota Republican, chairs the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee. He represents the state’s eighth Congressional District and has a remarkable record of public service. Prior to Congress, he worked as a St. Louis County Commissioner, City Councilor in Hermantown, and Duluth police officer for over two decades.