CHAPTER 4A OUTLOOK FOR THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
| Jurisdiction | United States |
OUTLOOK FOR THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Principal
Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC
Washington, DC
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PAUL MOOREHEAD is a principal in Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville's Indian Tribal Governments Group, in Washington, DC. Paul's practice is dedicated exclusively to federal Indian law and policy. He focuses on initiatives, policies and programs that affect Indian tribal governments and Native American people, including appropriations, commercial transactions, energy and natural resources development, trust reform, environmental protection, gaming, healthcare and telemedicine, housing and infrastructure development, tribal self-governance, taxation, and Indian land and water rights settlements. From 1997 to 2005, Paul was chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. In this capacity, his duties included legislative oversight of all federal programs and related appropriations for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Before serving on the Senate Committee staff, Paul was counsel and government affairs director to the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and most representative Indian tribal advocacy organization in the nation. In that position, he helped direct NCAI in its advocacy on Capitol Hill, in the agencies and in the courts, and establish positions on land into trust, gaming, appropriations, federal recognition, taxation, economic development, healthcare, child welfare, veterans' affairs, and a variety of other matters.
Paul has spoken to many national, regional, and local organizations on a variety of Indian-related topics, especially tribal governance and economic development initiatives. He has been recognized by Chambers USA for Native American Law since 2006. He serves on the National Council of the National Museum of the American Indian, and is the President of Strategies for International Development, a nonprofit serving American Indian farmers in Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. Paul holds a J.D. from Temple University School of Law and a bachelor's degree in International Relations and Economics from the University of Delaware.
Overview
In January 2017, Washington, D.C.'s politics and policy machine went into high gear, speculating what a Trump Administration would mean for the American economy, our relationships overseas, and any number of other key policy areas.
The Trump campaign, on the other hand, left little to the imagination when it came to energy policy: the incoming President and his team would promote the development of American energy resources unashamedly and with an eye on "energy dominance."
The first nine months of the Trump Administration have borne this out, with the President issuing eight energy-related executive orders, and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke issuing four energy-related secretarial orders. These orders have been the only real vehicles available to the new Administration in the absence of any energy-related legislative activity in the Congress. Bills have been introduced to encourage both Indian tribal energy development as well as energy development in general but, as of this writing, none have been approved and sent to the President's desk.
In addition to these formal actions, the President has convened informal meetings in the White House complex covering a wide range of topics, including physical infrastructure development, energy, finance, and others. Tribal leaders have been included in these meetings and others are likely to be held in future months. During these sessions, participants identify statutory and regulatory barriers to project development and are able to communicate directly with the President and his key Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials.
Why Indian Energy?
Three decades after the enactment of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,1 the Indian gaming industry has matured and in the last analysis generates more than $30 billion in gross revenue.2 While the revenue total generated from energy resource development is nowhere close to this figure, the potential benefit to Indian tribes and tribal members is enormous.
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Based on Department of the Interior statistics, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in November 2016 that tribes and their members - collectively - are the third largest owner of mineral resources, including oil, gas and coal in the United States.3 Similarly, the Department of Energy estimates that Indian lands in the Lower 48 states have the potential to produce 1.1 billion megawatt hours of electricity from wind - 3.4 percent of the potential in the United States.4
Despite this potential, unemployment in tribal communities remains high, poverty is rampant and the standard of living for most Native American families remains the lowest in the country.
The focus, therefore, on statutory, regulatory and policy changes is not an academic exercise at all. Liberalizing these sources of law and developing a classically liberal, pro-production energy policy will have real impacts on the lives of Indian people across the country.5
Early action on Executive and Secretarial Orders
Among the first actions taken by President Trump were orders designed to rescue the Dakota Access and XL Keystone pipelines from regulatory limbo. These orders, the "Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline" and the "Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline,"...
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