Congress

The permitting process for energy projects can drag on for years, resulting in multiple state and federal hurdles, environmental studies and judicial reviews. This is true not only of traditional energy projects involving oil and gas but also renewables like wind and solar and long-distance transmission, which are seen as key elements of the energy transition. Legislation proposed by a pair of influential senators aims to help move these projects along every step of the way but getting Congress to agree on anything — especially during an election year — figures to be a formidable challenge. In today’s RBN blog we examine the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024. 

The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) — whose primary purpose was to increase the federal government’s debt ceiling — addressed some immediate priorities surrounding federal permitting for energy and infrastructure projects and sought to expedite completion of the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), but it did more than that. Its passage provided a ray of hope for those eager for a renewed focus on permitting issues while also serving to underscore all the progress that is still needed. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the other key sections of the FRA, where Congress could look next to address permitting reform, and why additional progress might be hard to achieve.

The recent drama related to the U.S. debt ceiling may have illustrated the chaos that polarization has brought to Washington, but it showed one other thing as well: there’s an appetite for federal permitting reform from Democrats and Republicans alike. The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), signed into law Saturday by President Biden, addressed some immediate priorities — including changes to the review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — but its mandate to expedite completion of the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) caught many of the project’s supporters and critics by surprise. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the permitting issues that have kept MVP in regulatory limbo and how the FRA is designed to overcome them and bring the project back to life.