On Monday, the U.S. Senate advanced a bill co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) of New Mexico that fast-tracks energy projects and aligns with President Trump’s “America First” energy agenda.
That’s even as tribal leaders, many environmental organizations, and members of New Mexico’s own Congressional delegation publicly oppose the bill.
Among the concerns are that the proposed legislation is an attack on tribal sovereignty.
“What we were facing is this Administration is getting ready to eliminate the federal tribal consultation process,” said Heinrich, defending the bill he co-sponsored with U.S> Sens. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “They’re going to replace a back and forth process with a 30-day comment period. This bill is my only opportunity to legislate mandatory tribal consultation. Is it perfect? No, because I’m negotiating with people I don’t always agree with.”
According to Congress’s own summary of the proposed legislation, the bill “modifies federal permitting processes, including environmental reviews, to expedite a wide range of projects.”
That includes “limiting the types of federal actions that trigger environmental review,” narrowing “the scope of review for water quality certifications,” modifying “requirements concerning threatened or endangered species to expedite the review of federal permits,” “removing permit requirements for onshore oil and gas drilling on nonfederal land,” and limiting “the scope of the National Historic Preservation Act, including by limiting what types of projects trigger review.”
Then, this past Saturday, the four co-sponsors announced via a press release the publication of an amended version of the bill, which also received President Trump’s support. On Sunday, he posted on Truth Social urging Senators to vote for the bill, writing “This Landmark Permitting Reform Legislation will codify our America First Energy Agenda, and ensure that we can build Pipelines, Mines, and Power Plants faster than ever before, lowering Energy Costs for American Families, and creating High Paying American Jobs.”
Newly re-elected Democratic U.S. Representatives from New Mexico Teresa Leger-Fernandez and Melanie Stansbury publicly oppose the bill. On Monday morning, Stansbury posted her own video response urging members to vote against it.
“First and foremost, the process is unacceptable,” said Stansbury. “We should not be being force-fed a bill right after a historic election as the first vote on the Senate floor without any hearings, without any discussion, and a complete overhaul of environmental laws. That is not okay.”
The Senate’s procedure to advance this bill has been so quick that the amended version is not yet even available on Congress’s own website.
