U.S. House Lawmaker Offers Permitting Bill, Pledges To Work With Senate
Last week, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), who has been one of the top Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives working on permitting reform, released a draft bill aimed at speeding up approvals for the country’s energy projects. As The Hill reported, the legislation would:
- Give project opponents a deadline for when they can sue over a project
- Prevent federal courts from blocking projects based solely on insufficient environmental analysis;
- Restrict the use of new science in environmental reviews in order to prevent research from stalling a project’s approval; and
- Limit the environmental impacts that are subject to review to those that are likely to occur in areas directly affected by the project and have a direct causal relationship.
As Connecting the Dots readers are aware, in the upper chamber of Congress Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) are pushing a separate bipartisan bill. That legislation would:
- Institute a 150-day statute of limitations for lawsuits opposing energy projects and mandate expedited court review of legal challenges;
- Ensure the federal government conduct at least one offshore oil and gas sale and one wind sale annually from 2025 to 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.
A spokesperson for Rep. Westerman spokesperson described the congressman’s bill as only a draft and a starting point in bicameral talks.