Rep. Grijalva: Fossil fuel permitting reforms have a 'transparency issue'
Yahoo Finance Video
Rep Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the fossil fuel permitting provisions and reforms. the green transition, and environmental concerns.
Video Transcript
BRIAN CHEUNG: The passing of the Inflation Reduction Act has been widely hailed as a landmark win for President Biden's climate agenda. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin switched from being a longtime holdout to supporter of the package of renewable energy investments on the promise of fresh legislation for infrastructure permits.
But with debate over the proposed legislation set to begin, opposition is growing in some corners and none so more than our next guest, Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva, who is also the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us live this morning.
Just to kind of back up a little bit, you want to separate that Manchin provision on permitting out of the legislative dance that could trigger a shutdown, what is known as the continuing resolution. Can you just walk us through what your issues are there and how you feel like permitting should be approached through this landmark legislation?
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RAUL GRIJALVA: Look, the issue of-- under the facsimile of permitting reform, this has been a demand and a cry primarily from Republicans for as long as I can remember on the House of Representatives, and certainly on the committee.
And so this attaching a significant reform, particularly as it applies to the National Environmental Policy Act, which is the key issue of transparency and public input and accountability regarding any permitting process, any major decision in which the federal government is used, any emissions that are regulated go through there, through Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, and to expedite those at the behest primarily of industry because the American Petroleum Institute, that's their agenda. And basically, the leak regarding the content of that-- that's how we all found out about it-- came from the Petroleum Institute.
And so we feel-- we, and it's not just myself-- that a continuing resolution to keep the government open needs to be passed. And we want to do that. But to attach this permitting with this controversy with this provisions that run many times counter to the efforts in the IRA to begin the difficult transition process to clean and renewable energy would stand in the way of that. And we feel they need to be separated. They need-- they have to stand on their own merit.
And that has been the request. And that is the request that I and 60 of my colleagues plus at this point are going to be asking of our leadership, that we separate those two issues and let the members on the House floor vote separately on those.
Congressman, there's an argument to be made that any type of regulatory reform if we're talking about permitting, well, obviously, as you said, benefit fossil fuel projects, but also clean energy projects as well. Is your concern more with the fossil fuel side, or is it just the broad reform that's being proposed in general?
RAUL GRIJALVA: Well, that distinction isn't clear, at least in the information that we have so far on the corollary that the Senate agreed to enter for Mr. Manchin's support, Senator Manchin's support. So we're not sure what that means. And yeah, the concern is fossil fuels. The concern is digging the hole deeper while we're trying to make a transition to clean and renewable energy. The concern is the transparency issue.
And then there is the underlining concern that is important to many of the members of Congress and certainly to have to communities across this. And that is the environmental justice frontline issue about these communities that are already overburdened with environmental pollution and contamination suddenly because of the ease in which the process now would be reformed suddenly find themselves receiving additional burden on the burdens they already have.
And we think that that's not fair. We think that that's why the separation is important. We have a piece of legislation, the Environmental Justice for All Act that we would like to see action in September. We see there's an urgency there. And that is one of the issues that we have been promoting. And it runs counter to that legislation. It runs counter to some of the initiatives to move in a transition away from fossil fuels.
And we don't know the full consequences, intended or unintended, of the corollary of the sidebar that was agreed to in the Senate regarding permitting. We don't know. And as a consequence, we say, let's deal with them separately, and let those debates fully flesh out what is or isn't in that legislation.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Congressman, you mentioned that you have a number of your other colleagues kind of signed on with you and wanting to break this out separately. Is your expectation that you will be able to do that? And then you'd have to, I imagine, convince some of your colleagues over in the Senate to kind of support this as well. How optimistic are you that you can actually pull that off?
RAUL GRIJALVA: At this point, we don't really have a definitive answer for you, my friend. As soon as we have the body and the mass of members that we need on this letter, we'll be presenting that to leadership early next week and from there, begin the discussions, A, about the separation and the status of the Environmental for Justice All Act and where it falls in the legislative calendar going forward.
But in terms of the Senate, I understand that this was an understanding that was made by leadership Schumer in particular and others in the Democratic side. And the passage of that legislation was significant and important. And I agree with them. But in terms of what the House does or doesn't do, I think that's a separate discussion. I think the House has-- should have the full latitude to separate and to send them a separate item to the Senate and let the Senate work its will.
AKIKO FUJITA: Well, we will certainly be following the discussions there. Congressman Raul Grijalva, appreciate your time today. Thanks so much for stopping by.
RAUL GRIJALVA: And thank you very much. I appreciate the courtesy.