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.
Almost everyone acknowledges the benefit of having interested parties and stakeholders weigh in on significant proposals to build or expand infrastructure, whether it be a new highway, an airport runway extension or an interstate oil or gas pipeline. Additionally, credible regulations and appropriate safeguards (such as the Clean Water Act’s focus on protecting the nation’s water supplies) are essential to the process. Still, the often-byzantine permitting process (see Figure 1 below) for some projects can drag on for years. Given those hurdles, horror stories abound — a decade or more to build an electric transmission line or to get a mining permit — and the reality is that some large, complicated projects can be constructed in far less time than it takes to secure required permits and work through the legal challenges. The issues are well-documented in numerous RBN blogs, including our Don’t Pass Me By blog series and Easier Said Than Done Down Report.
Figure 1. Illustration of Review Process Under National Environmental Policy Act.
Source: Federal Railroad Association
Last month, Senators Joe Manchin (a longtime Democrat but now an Independent from West Virginia who will retire this year) and John Barrasso (a Republican from Wyoming) unveiled a bipartisan bill — the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 — with the aim of minimizing regulatory and legal logjams. We should note that it was Manchin’s approval that secured passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 (see Name Game), the Biden administration’s most significant energy-related legislation. As part of securing the IRA’s passage, Democratic leaders promised a vote on a separate measure — which subsequently failed — to speed up the permitting process, including reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and measures to ensure completion of the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. (The final approvals for MVP later became part of 2023’s debt-ceiling bill, which also included some NEPA reforms; for more, see Rescue Me.)
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