News List

WASHINGTON – The House Science, Space and Technology subcommittees on Energy and the Environment held a joint hearing today examining the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) multi-year study on hydraulic fracturing. In recent months, the EPA has misled the public about possible groundwater contamination linked to hydraulic fracturing, only to back-peddle when the facts came to light. The latest instance of the agency’s sloppy, agenda-driven conclusions is the Pavillion, WY case. The hearing was intended to evaluate if the EPA had learned any lessons from its previous mistakes in the context of its ongoing study. Read more »

WASHINGTON – Tuesday the House Natural Resources Committee continued a nearly five-year-long battle for answers from the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), on why the administration wasted nearly $9 million dollars and five years developing a new rule that is entirely unnecessary. Read more »

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today brought the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2014 for a subcommittee vote. Simpson, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment Appropriations, put forth a bill that complies with the House Budget by cutting funding for agencies under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction by over $5 billion. Read more »

Washington, D.C. – The House Natural Resources Committee today held an oversight hearing on the status of the Obama Administration’s rewrite of a sweeping coal regulation known as the Stream Buffer Zone Rule, during which U.S. Representative Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson questioned Joseph Pizarchik, Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), on the lack of transparency governing of the rulemaking process and the potential for huge economic losses under the new regulation. Read more »

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson has cosponsored H.R. 2707, the Clean Water Compliance and Ratepayer Affordability Act of 2013, which gives communities flexibility in dealing with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean water regulations. Read more »

WASHINGTON, DC – House Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade, under the chairmanship of Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO), today held a hearing to examine how small business would be affected by the regulatory limitations on emissions outlined in the President's Climate Action Plan and review the EPA's compliance obligations under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). Read more »

Washington, DC – Wednesday U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) welcomed Cheyenne attorney and legal expert Karen Budd-Falen, who testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power in opposition to the controversial National Blueways Program, a bureaucratic invention to federally-designate entire river watersheds. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Alaskan Congressman Don Young, a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, today heard testimony from Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, who testified for the first time after joining the agency in April 2013. Read more »

WASHINGTON—Today, during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing, Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) questioned Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on two issues with broad implications for Colorado—a potential endangered species designation of the Gunnison sage grouse and the Blueways Order. Read more »

WASHINGTON—Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell today testified before the House Natural Resources Committee. During the hearing, Public Lands and Environmental Regulation subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) highlighted recently released emails between Department of Interior staff from September-December 2011 that have led to questions about the lack of real scientific data and legal analyses used in the production of BLM’s 2011 “Report on National Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Measures” presented by the Sage-grouse National Technical Team (NTT). Read more »