Congressional action on energy permitting remains stuck, but states, developers are finding solutions
Despite at least 10 permitting reform bills before Congress, two major federal regulatory initiatives and a bipartisan House caucus call for action on permitting reform, progress remains delayed.
Transmission queue backlogs, system operator capacity shortfalls and increasing outages from billion dollar extreme weather events make the need for streamlined infrastructure approvals irrefutable, analysts, developers and policymakers agree.
“Americans are already experiencing the many devastating impacts of rising global temperatures,” 13 Republicans and 13 Democrats of the Climate Solutions Caucus wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in November. “Permitting reform to bolster our domestic energy supply” and expand “energy transmission” should be prioritized, they said.
Outdated environmental rules and hundreds of amendments and judicial interpretations built into them are causing “a crippling delay in permitting new projects,” said Alexander Herrgott, president and CEO of The Permitting Institute, or TPI. But “truth-in-permitting” that brings transparency and accountability to the handling of project applications can address “the pinch points in the process,” he added.
The proposed legislation and regulatory initiatives, called a “veneer” by Herrgott, are moving slowly, observers said.