$1.3 Trillion House Package Funds ARPA-E, Weatherization, Blocks Permitting For Alaska's Pebble Mine
House Democrats today passed a $1.3 trillion spending package that puts them at odds with the Trump White House over Department of Energy funding priorities and would block permitting for the Pebble mine in Alaska.
The House backed the package, H.R. 7617, with the fiscal 2021 Energy-Water, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Financial Services-General Government bills. The vote was 217-197. The chamber rapidly moved through more than 300 amendments to the minibus over the past two days, including to boost spending on weatherization programs by $250 million and increase energy efficiency and conservations grants by $250 million.
There were only a handful of energy and environment policy add-ons, which included an amendment to block permitting for the Pebble gold and copper project in southwestern Alaska. Another approved amendment would bar the administration from leasing space in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to foreign countries (E&E Daily, July 31).
DOE would receive $41 billion under the bill, an increase of $2.3 billion from the level enacted into law for fiscal 2020. Much of that spending increase would go toward nuclear weapon modernization, which would see a $1.3 billion hike.
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