In March of this year, as the world’s energy leaders convened at CERAWeek in Houston, there were several issues on everyone’s minds – the amount of energy needed to meet demand growth driven by accelerated deployment of artificial intelligence technology and the need for permitting reform for energy projects in the United States.
It’s a topic of bipartisan agreement, as the current system is slow, inefficient and weaponized by opponents of specific projects or of development in general, enabling them to stymie activity for years, sometimes decades.
A call for permitting reform – she was particularly interested in permitting geothermal projects at the time – delivered the loudest applause for U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaking to attendees at CERAWeek in 2023. She returned to the topic again in 2024, joining multiple speakers in calling for action by Congress.
“We’re doing everything we can,” promised U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, during the conference, and “it will get done.”
A Promise Delivered
And in July of this year, together with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the ranking member on the same Committee, Manchin delivered the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
Passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a bipartisan vote of 15 to 4, the bill is intended to “strengthen American energy security by accelerating the permitting process for critical energy and mineral projects of all types in the United States.”
“The United States of America is blessed with abundant natural resources that have powered our nation to greatness and allow us to help our friends and allies around the world,” said Manchin.
“Unfortunately, today our outdated permitting system is stifling our economic growth, geopolitical strength, and ability to reduce emissions,” he added.
“For far too long, Washington’s disastrous permitting system has shackled American energy production and punished families in Wyoming and across our country,” Barrasso said. “Congress must step in and fix this process.”
Working together over more than a year, Manchin explained, “thoughtfully considering input from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and engaging in good faith negotiations,” the result is a “commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation that will speed up permitting and provide more certainty for all types of energy and mineral projects without bypassing important protections for our environment and impacted communities.”
Responses to the bill demonstrated its bipartisan appeal.
The American Clean Power Association’s CEO Jason Grumet observed that the “nation’s future success and strength rests on building modern systems to produce, store and distribute energy. We have the technology, workforce and financial capital to build great things, but we lack a governing process that is designed to succeed. This legislation changes that.”
“At a time of persistent inflation, it’s long past time to fix our nation’s broken permitting system and unlock the domestic resources needed to meet rising demand for affordable, reliable energy,” said Amanda Eversole, executive vice president and chief advocacy officer of the American Petroleum Institute. “This legislation not only takes tangible steps toward a more transparent, consistent and timely permitting process, but also ends the administration’s misguided LNG export permit pause, strengthening American energy leadership while helping to reduce emissions worldwide. We applaud Senators Manchin and Barrasso for renewing bipartisan efforts to build the infrastructure needed for today and the future.”
Highlights of the legislation include:
- While maintaining existing rights to judicial review, the bill provides shortened timelines for this process and requires expedited court review of legal challenges.
- Leasing and permitting decisions on federal lands are accelerated for both energy and minerals projects. It includes provisions to ensure oil and gas acreage leasing for those areas nominated. It sets deadlines and production targets for renewable energy projects, as well as streamlining and updating permitting for oil and gas, coal, geothermal, hardrock mining and electricity transmission and storage.
- Offshore it requires the secretary of interior to conduct both wind and oil and gas offshore lease sales annually from 2025 through 2029. Actions previously taken by the Biden administration would not assure these sales; this bill changes that.
- While preserving protections for customers, communities and states, the bill seeks to reform the permitting process for electrical transmission lines.
- With a focus on electric reliability, the bill requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to assess the impact of future federal laws affecting power plants and provide guidance and feedback to the relevant federal agencies.
- Reversing the “pause” instituted by the Biden administration on LNG exports, the bill provides a 90-day deadline for the energy secretary to review and approve or deny export applications after environmental reviews are complete and requires the secretary to use existing economic and emissions studies until such time as new studies are completed.
“This legislation is an urgent and important first step towards improving our nation’s broken permitting process,” Barrasso said.
Grumet and Eversole agreed, with both calling on Congress to act for the good of the nation.
A Promise in Peril
The prospects for the bill are uncertain, given this is an election year, and Manchin has announced that he is not seeking reelection. It’s unlikely to see the Senate floor before November.
Over in the House of Representatives the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Natural Resources have expressed a desire to draft their own legislation, according to a note from law firm Holland & Knight, and have indicated that is more likely to occur in the next Congress.
Politics is the art of the possible. If the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 has done nothing else, it has revealed that a spirit of bipartisanship still flickers. Let’s tend that flame.