Subcommittee hears tribal leaders say federal permitting, NEPA and agency policies slow tribal energy projects

The House Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Indian, Insular Affairs convened a hearing on tribal natural resource development where tribal leaders and energy advocates described federal permitting and policy obstacles that slow or stop projects on trust lands.

Chairman Hurd opened the session by framing the problem: projects on tribal trust land can require many more federal approvals than identical projects on private land, increasing delay and financing risk. Witnesses testified that the resulting uncertainty can kill projects or raise costs that make development infeasible.

Frank White, chairman of the Crow Nation, described the human cost of such delays. "For more than four decades, the mine was the economic engine of the Crow Nation," White said, and its closure led to "approximately 275 crew members" losing jobs and tribal revenues dropping by about $35 million, he testified. White argued the cumulative federal permitting and regulatory environment contributed to the mine's closure and framed timely approvals as a sovereignty and community welfare issue.

Andrew Gallegos, a Southern Ute Tribal Council member, reviewed statutory tools that Congress has created to increase tribal control — notably the HEARTH Act and tribal energy resource agreements (TERAs) authorized in 2005 — and said the Southern Ute tribe has submitted a TERA application and expects Interior approval soon. Gallegos and other witnesses urged congressional support for the SPEED Act, which they said would reduce duplicative reviews and provide clearer NEPA expectations for actions affecting tribal trust lands.

Talia Martin, co‑executive director of Tribal Energy Alternatives, described her organization's distributed solar and workforce programs: since 2010 the group has worked with more than 75 tribes, deploying more than 8 megawatts of solar across tribal homes and facilities and training tribal members. Martin said termination of the federal Solar for All program removed roughly $500 million in targeted funding and cited model estimates that such projects could yield roughly $1,300 per household in annual savings in favorable cases; she urged protecting federal investments and designing incentives tribes can access.

Ken Ahmed (self‑identified as chief operating officer of a tribally owned energy enterprise serving the Colusa community) described a tribal cogeneration microgrid supplemented with solar and batteries that has supplied continuous power since 2012 and is expanding battery capacity. Ahmed listed six barriers that commonly delay tribal projects: lengthy NEPA processes (he cited an average Environmental Impact Statement timeline of about 4.5 years), multi‑agency fragmentation, grid interconnection and transmission planning timelines, lengthy fee‑to‑trust processes, limits in the HEARTH/TERA implementation regime, and a Department of Interior policy that requires the Interior Secretary personally review every tribal clean energy application, which witnesses called a bottleneck.

Members questioned witnesses on investment incentives, the practical effects of action delays and programmatic solutions. Representative McDowell asked why private investors would place capital on tribal projects when approval can entail 49 steps versus roughly four on private land; witnesses said most private investors avoid tribal projects under those conditions. Ranking Member Leger Fernandez pressed Martin on the household savings figures and raised a drafting concern about SPEED Act language that would require public comments to be both "substantive and unique," which could foreclose multiple similar tribal comments; witnesses acknowledged the potential drafting problem and urged refinement.

Witnesses and members consistently framed the issue as both economic and a matter of tribal sovereignty — that is, tribes seeking authority to approve and manage development on their lands. Several witnesses urged congressional action to streamline permitting, expand tribal regulatory capacity and preserve or replace targeted federal funding for tribal energy projects. The hearing record will be held open for ten business days for written follow‑up; members were asked to submit questions by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 27, 2026. The subcommittee adjourned without a vote.