John Hickenlooper Presses Witnesses On ‘Permitting Bottlenecks’ In U.S. Mining Industry

2 days ago

During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) questioned witnesses about potential solutions to issues in the U.S. mining industry.

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Transcript

00:00I'm going to defer to Senator Hickenlooper. I know he has a second round.

00:04Great. Let me get back to my question there. I got distracted for just that moment.

00:10That's always the case. You guys have been talking a lot about supply chain,

00:15and I think that that's at the essence of all these things.

00:22Again, I want to go back to Mr. Summers. The National Critical Minerals Council Act

00:30to ensure that we are coordinating minerals policy at the highest level of government.

00:39Can you elaborate on why it's essential to elevate critical minerals to the highest levels of the

00:48White House, obviously, but also to the agency, and how a national council or a minerals advisor

00:56could enhance that? Absolutely. I'd like to echo what Mr. Haddock said. I think that more

01:03centralization in the federal government would be very beneficial in whatever form that takes,

01:08a Bureau of Mines or a National Critical Minerals Council or Minerals Czar. I'm not sure exactly

01:14what that should look like in specific, but I think that ensuring that the federal government

01:18is working together and you have the Department of Energy and Department of Interior and the

01:23Department of Defense and the trade representative and others, all the different parts of government

01:28that need to be involved in these discussions so that we are, again, maximizing our opportunities

01:34to be self-sufficient with our critical mineral supply chain and also dealing with

01:39trade issues and other issues that can affect investment here in the U.S. is absolutely

01:46essential. All right. I appreciate that more than you can imagine. I think

01:52collaboration and coordination is going to be in high demand. Mr. Wood, again, as someone who

02:00also loves trout, and like many of your members, I enjoy taking the trout out of the water but

02:06also putting them back. Yes. That's good. Yeah. I think we have some of the largest trout,

02:12I think, in the country. People don't recognize that yet. Yes, you do.

02:16What actions can Congress take to reduce the impacts of some of these new mining

02:21projects? What have we not talked about yet where we could get better value in particular?

02:29I think we've talked about several topics already that would reduce impact. I will say that

02:36modern mining is a lot different than historic mining practices. These are well-regulated

02:42industries. Most of them are well-capitalized. I do think the two biggest problems with the

02:48mining law, I don't think, are that unfixable. One is, as I mentioned earlier, creating a

02:54dedicated funding source or royalty. The second issue would be making clear that there is

03:01discretion for denying a mine permit early in the process. Right. I agree. Perfect. Thank you.

03:10Appreciate that. Obviously, that's a discussion that could go on for some hours. I'll finish up,

03:16Mr. Haddock. We've talked about a better path forward for mining in this country by simpler

03:24permitting processes, faster responses, but making sure that we have the highest environmental

03:31standards. I guess I could say, actually, to all witnesses, you've already covered a number of the

03:39permitting bottlenecks that mining companies face on projects.

03:44As we resume on this committee bipartisan discussions at solutions,

03:50what would you think, each can suggest one, what should be our highest priority?

03:57I'll start past the Mineral Regulatory Clarity Act.

04:01Okay. That's fair. Mr. Summers?

04:05Again, I think that there's been a lot of discussion about permitting reform,

04:09and that's absolutely critical, and also litigation reform.

04:12There you go. I would say, again,

04:15funding to clean up abandoned mines and allowing some more discretion in the process

04:20for areas where you shouldn't mine. Right. Absolutely. The ranking member

04:23described the $56 billion backlog, $54 billion backlog, and yet the billion dollars a year that

04:31you mentioned, really, it's almost just taking care of what's happening day to day with existing

04:36mining as small as it is. Anyway, somehow that's got to come together as well as we get ultimate

04:42solutions. Anyway, thank you all. I appreciate your work and look forward to working with you

04:46going forward. I yield back.

John Hickenlooper Presses Witnesses On ‘Permitting Bottlenecks’ In U.S. Mining Industry

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