U.S. Senators Introduce Bipartisan Permitting Bill

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and John Barrasso (R-Wy.), the committee’s ranking member, have released bipartisan legislation that will reform federal permitting rules to speed up energy and minerals projects and expand domestic energy production, increase access for companies to tap traditional energy sources on public lines, and curb lawsuits that infrastructure opponents often use to slow or stop energy projects.

The bill also would end the Biden administration’s six-month moratorium on liquefied natural gas export permits by instituting a 90-day deadline by which the U.S. Department of Energy must act on energy company requests following environmental reviews. The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) has opposed this moratorium.

Over the last several years, MSCI also has supported permitting reform measures, which, in general, would stabilize manufacturing supply chains, control costs for consumers, reduce the United States’ reliance on foreign nations, and create U.S. jobs. The Manchin-Barrsasso bill would achieve these goals by:

• Institute a 150-day statute of limitations for lawsuits opposing energy projects and mandate expedited court review of legal challenges;
• Obligate the federal government to conduct at least one offshore oil and gas sale and one wind sale annually from 2025 through 2029, with minimum acreage requirements;
• Double production targets for permitting renewable energy projects on federal lands, to 50 gigawatts; and
• Protect grid reliability by requiring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to assess future federal regulations that significantly affect power plants and offer formal comments to federal agencies about any effects on electric reliability.