The chairman of a new House subcommittee said he plans to shine a spotlight on a pair of environmental laws many critics blame for stifling the use of public lands but that are fiercely defended by conservationists.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the newly created Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, said he plans to take a closer look this Congress at the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Antiquities Act, two bedrock laws that have faced withering criticism from Republicans and some land users in the West.

The battle lines in the subcommittee will be stark, as Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Bishop's Democratic counterpart, yesterday said he is prepared to defend NEPA and will be pushing President Obama to flex his muscles under the Antiquities Act during his second term.

Bishop's new subcommittee will take jurisdiction over environmental reforms and NEPA, a 1969 law designed to mandate public disclosure of the impacts of federally authorized or funded projects.

While NEPA affects federal projects nationwide, some Westerners in particular blame it for delaying cattle ranching, logging and oil and gas drilling on public lands. But proponents of the law say it is a critical tool to ensure that land managers and the public understand the impacts of decisions before they are made, though it does not require protection of the environment.

Bishop said much of the subcommittee's early work will involve fact finding and may extend beyond the Interior Department and Forest Service to other federal agencies that use NEPA.

"Everybody gets drilled by NEPA somewhere along the line," Bishop said in a short interview with E&E Daily. He noted that some liberal Democrats in California have raised concerns about the state's version of NEPA and that Canada was revamping its version of the law.

But he acknowledged that reforming the law will be difficult, considering that many conservationists consider it the holy grail of environmental law. Republican attempts last Congress to pass laws shortening NEPA reviews or exempting certain projects all fell flat in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"It's not going to be easy, which is why I'm not expecting it to be fast," Bishop said. "We're going to take our time."

Grijalva said he's not surprised Republicans intend to target NEPA and that it will be the role of Democrats to defend the law.

"NEPA is still going to be the whipping boy on almost any piece of legislation we see," he said. "You're going to see the whole scenario, except now there will be two theaters: the full committee and now the subcommittee."

Environmentalists, too, said they are girding for a broader fight over NEPA, which House Republicans last Congress sought to curtail in a five-year transportation authorization bill that was later scrapped after failing to garner enough votes.

"We may this time around see a frontal assault on the statute itself -- rather than just limiting the instances for when it applies -- that cuts at the heart of the environmental protections we have in place in this country," said Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "NEPA is the source of the right of the public to participate in the government decisions that affect their communities."

Antiquities Act

A bigger battle may be over Obama's use of the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law that allows presidents to designate national monuments -- which can prohibit new mining claims, oil and gas drilling or other extractive uses -- without the consent of Congress.

While most designations are welcomed locally, Bishop, who represents a state where many residents still seethe from the surprise designation of a 1.9-million-acre monument by President Clinton in 1996, has sought to give Congress and states more control over the process.

"The Antiquities Act is still being abused," Bishop said. "Even if you're going to keep legislative powers in the executive branch, they should at least go through the same NEPA process that everyone else does."

Oversight of the Antiquities Act, which more than a dozen presidents of both parties have used, could come into sharp relief during Obama's second term, a time when most monuments historically have been designated.

While the House last Congress passed curbs on the Antiquities Act as part of a broader hunting package -- which the Senate never took up -- Bishop said he is willing to explore other options for reforming the law that could gain more political traction.

Grijalva said he is hopeful Obama will use the act more than he did in his first term, which included designations protecting two historic forts in Virginia and California, an American Indian archaeological site in southwest Colorado and the home of labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Environmentalist are urging the president to designate larger, landscape-scale monuments in states including New Mexico and Arizona, a call Grijalva echoed.

"You've got to use that power," Grijalva said. "[Obama] didn't use it the first four years, particularly around the environment."

Grijalva said he's hopeful the president will use the threat of new monuments to pressure Republicans to the bargaining table on conservation bills.

"That becomes something we can utilize, even to force the Republicans to deal with some of these designation issues in a compromising way," he said.

Bishop said such tactics could backfire.

"The more the president uses the Antiquities Act, for example, the more fodder he gives us to fight it somewhere else," he said.

The administration will have to toe a careful line with House Republicans and Bishop, who has managed to insert language into past appropriations bills blocking Interior's implementation of a secretarial order to protect wilderness lands.

Areas of agreement?

Despite their differences, both Bishop and Grijalva said they are optimistic that the 113th Congress could reach bipartisan compromises on public lands issues that have eluded it over the past two years.

Bishop, for one, said he could support conservation bills if Democrats are willing to allow management decisions on federal lands to be made locally rather than in Washington.

"I may surprise some people with what I'm willing to do if people are willing to make trades," Bishop said. "If there's anything that Grijalva wants to work with me on that moves it so local people actually control their own destiny, I'm actually very willing to talk to him about it."

But Bishop acknowledged that there was little, if any, discussion last Congress about a viable package of lands bills that could pass Congress, despite the introduction of a handful of Republican-sponsored conservation bills.

The House's biggest conservation act last Congress was passage of a bill elevating Pinnacles National Monument in California to full national park status. Some conservation measures reached the Senate floor last Congress, but the chamber, on the whole, didn't accomplish much more. It, too, failed to introduce a public lands package.

Bishop said much of the subcommittee's agenda will also depend on his discussions with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with whom Bishop said he sees a greater chance at compromise.

Grijalva said he is willing to limit his ambitions for land protections in order to meet Republicans halfway.

"While the rhetoric may not be scaled down, I think there is some room for compromise on some scaled-back public lands issues, particularly around designations and acquisitions," he said. "We can't disengage from that bluster, but I hope we take some responsibility for the fact that it was a dismal, dismal performance [last Congress] passing legislation and getting legislation done."