“Critical minerals are Indian minerals,” said Daniel Cardenas, a member of the Hammawi Band of the Pit River Tribe of California, at the Tribal Energy Summit held Thursday at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. “The energy transition must go through Indian Country to be successful. That is a huge opportunity and also a huge responsibility.”

More than 60 percent of the cobalt and lithium, and nearly 90 percent of the nickel and copper for clean energy technologies such as solar panels and batteries “lie under Indian reservations or within 55 miles of one,” said Cardenas, the India CEO. both the American Indian Infrastructure Association and the National Tribal Energy Association.

These facts underscored the importance of this first summit, which focused on how tribal communities can benefit from and participate in the boom in new energy development.

A conference room in the university’s School of Energy Resources will feature speakers from Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, who share the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Crow Nation, the Hammawi Band of the Pit River Tribe of California and the Navajo Nation shared cultural, legal and technocratic insights on how companies and tribes can collaborate on energy and mineral development in the West. Many spoke about the importance of building trust between tribes and the government.

“We believe very strongly that the destinies of states and tribes are intertwined,” Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said in opening remarks delivered remotely from his office in Cheyenne.

Many of the panels delved into explanations of tribal laws or federal and state laws governing energy development, underscoring the fundamental nature of many of the connections forged at the conference, and the delicate diplomacy and negotiations that sometimes hinder the development of surrounding energy resources. tribal countries. Several speakers emphasized the need for companies to be respectful when working with tribes, urging them to remember that it can sometimes be more practical to listen rather than speak.

Despite the importance of tribal lands in supplying crucial minerals for renewable energy, the conference often opened up on a technology promoted as a way to extend the use of the fossil fuels that are currently a critical part of Wyoming’s economy . As at the Wyoming Energy Summit last May, many panelists and audience members focused on carbon capture and sequestration, a technology that Wyoming has welcomed for its potential to keep the state’s coal, oil and gas industries viable in the face of increasingly cheaper renewable energy technologies. that do not emit dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Indian reservations “can provide thermal generation with carbon capture storage to complement this sustainable development,” said Andrew Browning, co-founder of Western States and Tribal Nations Energy Initiative, who moderated the opening panel on carbon capture and storage. The panel discussed tax benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), rights to underground minerals and pores, and the science behind carbon capture and sequestration.

As panelists noted, tribes pay no federal taxes and are eligible for direct government payment for resources that store captured carbon underground. Onlookers curious about the technology raised questions about the safety of carbon storage operations.

“This is not new technology, this has been done for decades,” Browning said. “This is an important part of the IRA.” Panelists noted that companies can claim carbon capture tax credits for 12 years once a project comes online, but they did not directly answer an audience member’s question about whether the credit would survive a change in presidential administration.

“I think a lot of the technology is unproven or not proven to be energy intensive,” said Big Wind Carpenter, a two-spirit member of Northern Arapaho who works on tribal engagement around climate change. Carpenter added that the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho have explored the idea of ​​using carbon to revive production in old oil and gas wells on the reservation, which would put more climate change emissions into the atmosphere. “I’m glad some in the audience raised some of these issues,” Carpenter said, adding that they were pleased with the panelists’ answers.

Carpenter said they also found explanations of tribal laws and policies helpful. “A lot of people don’t understand the core of the tribal corporations,” and the rights these entities have within the reservation.

For many Native American speakers and some attendees, the carbon capture and rare earth mineral industries – and the energy transition more broadly – ​​represent an opportunity for tribes to exercise energy sovereignty and take advantage of a new wave of energy development after decades of mistreatment by the federal government and private industry in resource extraction on and around tribal lands.

“Many of the challenges we face as Native people stem from hundreds of years of policy decisions that continue to impact our legal and cultural status today,” said Affie Ellis, Wyoming’s first Native Senator, who concluded with retires. of this year. “It takes time to straighten out and unravel hundreds of years.”

On mining and critical minerals, presenters argued that the future of the industry lay on Indian reservations.

Historically, the attitude of energy companies and the federal government toward tribes with valuable natural resources has often been predatory, some tribal visitors noted. Troy Eid, an attorney who has mediated energy disputes between tribes and corporations, cited the example of Peabody Energy, a coal company that paid royalties to the Navajo Nation that were 10 times lower than the market price of the coal the company was mining . reservation for most of the second half of the 20th century. And poor relations between energy companies and tribes can be costly. The Dakota Access Pipeline was “more than $1 billion over budget due to the intervention” of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Eid said.

When the government or companies “find good things on the reservation, they take them,” said Cardenas of the American Indian Infrastructure Association and the National Tribal Energy Association. History may repeat itself with the transition to clean energy, he warned.

“We are constantly told that we have to get rid of fossil energy,” he says. “We have to switch to green energy. We have to switch, that is good for the environment and for climate change. But no one ever asked Indian country if it was good for Indian country.” Cardenas added that climate change is clearly happening and he hopes tribes can be at the forefront of the fast-growing industries that will benefit from the energy transition.

To some extent, Indians have already benefited from the energy transition. Tribes across the West have received tens of millions of dollars for clean energy development and weatherization of homes within their reservations as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Navajo Nation is pursuing private sector financing for solar energy projects.

But Western states and tribes do not always agree on energy, and rifts that have formed over the centuries have fueled mistrust between the two sides. For example, this year, Harriet Hageman, Wyoming’s sole representative in the House of Representatives, introduced a bill that would transfer a state-owned Wind River hydroelectric dam and dam to a private irrigation company. Tribes were blindsided by the efforts that traveled to the District of Columbia to object to the bill, which passed the House of Representatives and was introduced in the Senate.

“Meaningful input is consultation,” said Mike Ute, vice chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Business Council. Holding an information meeting that is open to the public and not hearing any objections from Tribes there “is not consultation,” he continued. “If you need input from the tribes, go to the tribes and ask for it.”

Hageman’s office did not return a request for comment.

Many of the day’s speakers expressed gratitude throughout the day for the opportunity to share their expertise in front of tribal entities and businesses. The audience also found the discussion productive.

“Meeting with different energy tribes in the Mountain West and having those conversations will lead to future collaboration,” Carpenter said.

At the end of the final panel, on tribal sovereignty, Brian Williams, commissioner of the Wind River Energy Commission, which assists the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho on tribal energy issues, asked who in the audience wanted the summit to take place in the near future. would return. year.

Nearly every hand in the room went up.