With President Trump returning to the White House, a flurry of executive orders and changes have been implemented, including the declaration of a “National Energy Emergency” that will likely cut red tape for energy projects in Utah.
As a proud Utahn from St. George and the head of College Republicans at Brigham Young University, I am sympathetic to the renewed efforts to adjust policies regarding energy and public lands in the West, especially as we are faced with unprecedented levels of growth.
I believe a true balance between increasing demand and protecting our beautiful state can be achieved through greater local input and management.
But while President Trump’s new directives may help speed up permitting and boost growth in Southern Utah, reform in the executive branch can and should only get us so far. The federal government owns 65% of Utah’s land – 75% in Washington County – and most of the policies making growth difficult for Utah’s public land communities can only be changed through Congress. Our representatives in Congress must, therefore, work double time in the House and Senate to pass lasting legislative reforms.
One potentially transformational reform is the FREE Act, a bill authored by Representative Celeste Maloy and co-sponsored last Congress by our new Senator John Curtis. Simply put, the FREE Act would require the federal government to be transparent and efficient. As too many Utahns know firsthand, applying for a permit for any kind of infrastructure, energy, or agricultural project can take years of time and millions of dollars. The FREE Act would fix that by forcing federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to make a checklist of requirements for each permit. If the applicants were to meet all the requirements, then the agency would have six months to either issue the permit or explain how the applicants can fix their application. Applications would no longer collect dust on someone’s desk or receive rejections for vague or baseless reasons. This would give certainty to the private sector and encourage more investment and more economic activity.
President Trump also reportedly plans to rescind President Biden’s expansions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. But in order to prevent a future president from undoing President Trump’s executive action—as President Biden did four years ago—we will need Congress to fix the federal Antiquities Act legislatively. The Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act, introduced by Representative Maloy in partnership with Nevada Representative Mark Amodei, would claw back the authority Congress gave presidents to designate national monuments. This bill would make national monument designations solely the decision of Congress, which would prevent abuses and put an end to designations see-sawing back and forth every four years.
But the new thread running through Washington is the restoration of America’s manufacturing sector and ensuring that China is held accountable for its trade practice, including China’s energy abuses. As President Trump said on his first day in office, “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.” China has been undercutting our manufacturing for decades by destroying our environment. China emits more carbon into the atmosphere than the United States and Europe combined, and it is responsible for 12 – 24% of the sulfate pollution in Western states. It’s time to level the playing field – and it’s time for China to pay up.
Rep. Maloy and other members of the Utah delegation sponsored legislation last year called the PROVE IT Act, which would do just that. This would order a government study comparing the carbon emissions of American manufacturers to those of our rivals overseas—proving beyond a reasonable doubt that offshoring American manufacturing and energy projects for environmental reasons is absolutely nonsensical. The data could also save American companies millions of dollars in foreign-imposed carbon border adjustment taxes, bringing down their tax bills, making them more competitive with China, and bringing home more sales revenue to America. It’s no wonder the bill has been endorsed by the Steel Manufacturers Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute.
If Americans truly want a finality to the back-and-forth battles of our lands, then Congress needs to take action. There is no time to waste.
Dallin Bundy is the President of College Republicans at Brigham Young University
