Environmental Update

Environment Update

An Information Service of the NCSL Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources

May 23, 2006
Volume VII, Number 1

House passes first appropriations bill of the season. By a vote of 293 to 128, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (H.R. 5386) on May 18th. The final vote came after 10p.m., bringing to close a long day of voting and debate on the first of 10 appropriations bills the House must pass annually. Much of the floor action on the bill was related to legislative riders on such issues as climate change, outer continental shelf development, and royalty relief . However, some amendments were targeted at specific program funding levels, most notably a $800 million amendment offered by Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee. The amendment was meant to increase funding for a range of programs including the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, land acquisition, and conservation projects. Rep. Obey’s amendment, which included $250 million in additional funds for the CWSRF, was rejected by a voice vote leaving SRF funding in the final bill at $688 million, almost $200 million below FY 2006 enacted levels. The House also rejected, by a vote of 109-312, an amendment from Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colorado) that would have forced an across-the-board cut of 1 percent to all funding levels in the bill.

When all was said and done, the House approved a $26.1 billion FY 2007 Interior and Environment spending bill that includes nearly $275 million in cuts to the Interior Department and Forest Service. Amongst those programs facing funding cuts is a proposal to eliminate the $30 million Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) stateside grant accounts. The Appropriations Committee report language accompanying H.R. 5386 claims this funding authority has not been used recently. (For more information on LWCF stateside grant funding allocations from FY 2002-2006 go to http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/lwcf/funding.html) Other LWCF accounts were also cut. This included a 27 percent cut to the State Wildlife Grants Program at $50 million, $24 million less than the administration's recommendation.

Appropriation Riders Take Center Stage. As H.R. 5386 was preparing for floor consideration this, week numerous policy changing provisions or “riders” added by the Appropriations Committee drew much of the attention. The floor consideration resulted in a mixed bag of results with some provisions being stripped from the bill while others survived . . . for now. Any or all of these provisions may still be revisited once the Senate takes up its version of the FY 2007 Interior and Environment appropriations bill or during eventual conference committee negotiations to resolve differences between the two bills. Floor highlights include:

A nonbinding climate change provision, offered by Washington Representative Norm Dicks in committee, that would cap U.S. greenhouse gas emissions was defeated when Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) stood up to strike the "Sense of the Congress" resolution, arguing the language constitutes legislation on an appropriations measure. In an unusual attempt to continue debate on this issue, Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin) offered an amendment to the spending bill that would increase EPA's global warming account by just $1. The 30 minute debate centered on the perceived inaction by the Bush Administration on climate change and the impact of human activity on the global temperatures. Rep. Obey’s amendment was defeated by a voice vote.

An exemption to the Congressional ban on offshore oil and gas exploration for natural gas drilling, offered by Pennsylvania Representative John Peterson in committee, was overturned when the chamber voted 217-203 in favor of an amendment sponsored by Reps. Adam Putnam (R-Florida) and Lois Capps' (D-California) to reinstate the coastal leasing ban, which has been in place since the early 1980s.

A provision that would suspend royalty relief of future oil and gas production when certain price thresholds are eclipsed, offered in committee by New York Representative Maurice Hinchey, needed to be modified after removed from the bill on a point of order offered by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.). By a vote of 252 to 165 the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to bar Interior from using fiscal 2007 money to issue new leases to companies that already have leases that lack price thresholds. This relates back to a series of leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management in 1998 and 1999 that allow royalty relief but lack "price thresholds" that end the incentive when prices reach certain limits.

Other provisions approved during the floor debate included a 237-181 vote on an amendment from Reps. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) to cut off funding for new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest; a 231-187 vote on an amendment from Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Hilda Solis (D-California) to prohibit EPA from using any funds in the spending bill to finalize or enforce changes to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program as proposed in the “Burden Reduction Proposed Rule” put out by the Agency last October; and a 222 to 198 vote on a bipartisan amendment that would prohibit the agency from using funds to implement the 2003 guidelines which directed EPA and Army Corps of Engineers officials to stop applying CWA protections for non-navigable waters unless they receive permission from headquarters in Washington.

AN ENERGY BATTLE IS IN THE WIND – “A classic Senate standoff” is brewing over the Cape Wind project provision included in the Coast Guard reauthorization conference report (HR 889-H Rept 109-913). The provision, crafted by Senator Ted Stevens (R – AL), gives the Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney (R), veto power over the proposed 130 turbine wind farm project on the Nantucket Sound. Stevens says the project preempts state authority, and that the federal government should not support a project that would ignore local opposition. Stevens is joined by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), arguing not only for state and local rights, but also that the project poses a danger to aircrafts as well as the marine ecosystem, and the fishing and navigational economies. Kennedy’s home on the Cape also would have a view of the wind farm.

On the other side of the ring, we have the leaders of the Senate Energy & Resources Committee, Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who are contemplating blocking consideration of the Coast Guard Reauthorization. Domenici is quoted as saying, “It would be a very bad idea to give states veto authority over the siting of renewable energy projects on federal land in a bid to stop a particular project.” Joining Domenici and Bingaman are House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) and Energy Under Secretary David Garman. Further debate of the bill has not been scheduled.