[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 543 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 543
To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and
permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other
purposes.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 28, 2021
Ms. Herrell (for herself, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Westerman, Mr.
Gosar, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Moore of Utah, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Young, Mr.
Owens, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Brady, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Stewart,
Mr. Tiffany, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. McClintock, Mr.
Roy, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Calvert, Mrs. Bice
of Oklahoma, Mr. Baird, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Hern, Mrs.
Boebert, and Mr. Amodei) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the
Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
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A BILL
To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and
permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Our Wealth of Energy
Resources Act'' or the ``POWER Act''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MORATORIA OF NEW ENERGY LEASES ON CERTAIN
FEDERAL LAND AND ON WITHDRAWAL OF FEDERAL LAND FROM
ENERGY DEVELOPMENT.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Critical mineral.--The term ``critical mineral'' means
any mineral included on the list of critical minerals published
in the notice of the Secretary of the Interior entitled ``Final
List of Critical Minerals 2018'' (83 Fed. Reg. 23295 (May 18,
2018)).
(2) Federal land.--
(A) In general.--The term ``Federal land'' means--
(i) National Forest System land;
(ii) public lands (as defined in section
103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));
(iii) the outer Continental Shelf (as
defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331)); and
(iv) land managed by the Secretary of
Energy.
(B) Inclusion.--The term ``Federal land'' includes
land described in clauses (i) through (iv) of
subparagraph (A) for which the rights to the surface
estate or subsurface estate are owned by a non-Federal
entity.
(3) President.--The term ``President'' means the President
or any designee, including--
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(B) the Secretary of Energy; and
(C) the Secretary of the Interior.
(b) Prohibitions.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the President shall not carry out any action that would
prohibit or substantially delay the issuance of any of the
following on Federal land, unless such an action has been
authorized by an Act of Congress:
(A) New oil and gas leases, drill permits,
approvals, or authorizations.
(B) New coal leases, permits, approvals, or
authorizations.
(C) New hard rock leases, permits, approvals, or
authorizations.
(D) New critical minerals leases, permits,
approvals, or authorizations.
(2) Prohibition on withdrawal.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the President shall not withdraw any Federal
land from forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the
public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining
laws, or disposition under laws pertaining to mineral and
geothermal leasing or mineral materials unless the withdrawal
has been authorized by an Act of Congress.
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