A key Democrat is balking at a last-gasp effort to overhaul the nation’s energy permitting laws.
Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper, who is retiring and wants environmental protection to be central to his legacy, is objecting to House Republican demands to retool the National Environmental Policy Act — a 1970 law Democrats have long deemed sacrosanct.
“I think they’ve gone a bridge or two too far,” the Delaware Democrat said Monday of House Republican asks. Nonetheless, he said, “We’re going to keep talking.”
Asked what changes he would be OK with, Carper said, “Not as many as my friends in the House would like to make.”
Those concerns — no doubt shared by many Democrats — complicate a bipartisan permitting and transmission deal being pushed by Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
Proponents want to attach the package to a must-pass bill by the end of the year. But negotiators are running short on both time and legislative vehicles before Congress is set to adjourn next week.
Despite Carper’s hesitance, some Democrats seemed willing to swallow at least some Republican demands.
“I think we should all keep our eye on the fact that we need to get to yes or no faster. … Permitting reform is really important if we are serious about our climate goals,” said Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Manchin’s likely successor as top Democrat on ENR.
He also expressed frustration that a deal remains elusive. “I’ve been in a number of these conversations and I think that both sides have ruined the compromise,” he said.
At issue is the package from Manchin and Barrasso, the “Energy Permitting Reform Act” S. 4753, which includes a mix of benefits for the oil and gas industry and provisions to more quickly build large scale power lines. That latter detail has elicited concern from House Energy and Commerce Republicans because it would embolden federal regulators over state planners.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise threw also cold water on the idea of a deal in the next week and a half, telling POLITICO’s E&E News on Tuesday, “There’s a lot of negotiations, but there has got to be real permitting reform beyond what we’ve seen so far.”
‘Maybe we don’t do permitting reform’
An EPW aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, sought to clarify Carper’s comments, saying he has been driving negotiations around substantive NEPA changes.
“Carper has been consistently clear he supports the Manchin-Barrasso bill,” the aide said. “He wants to see a permitting deal before the end of the year. We are definitely still working on it.”
For their part, House Republicans have bold ideas for changes to the nation’s permitting laws, which were laid out in a discussion draft from House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) earlier this year.
The draft mainly includes changes to NEPA — like shortening environmental review timelines and shrinking judicial review deadlines — to energy and infrastructure projects across the board.
Westerman characterized his ideas as “the only bridge that gets us to permitting reform. So if that’s too far, then maybe we don’t have permitting reform.” He was quick to add: “We’re still working in good faith, but they are asking for a lot, and we feel like what we’re asking for is very reasonable.”
Westerman said talks are not ready to be elevated to congressional leadership level at this point. “We’re not satisfied with it yet,” he said.
Westerman said Manchin, an oil and gas defender who has made permitting overhaul one of his top pursuits, was fine with the Republican ideas. “He’s not the holdup,” Westerman said.
Smarting from last month’s electoral losses, some Democrats are increasingly willing to trade perks for oil and gas to get transmission language in law.
Even Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who is running to be the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and has long been adamantly opposed to rewriting NEPA, said he’d “be a lot more open this year than I am heading into next year.”
He added: “I think next year, a lot of this is going to be force-fed us.”
In fact, President-elect Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday that companies or individuals investing a billion dollars would be exempt from environmental review once he returns to the White House.
“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” Trump said. “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”
He provided no details about exactly how that would work. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the top Republican on the Environmental Public Works Committee was also unclear.
“I think he probably wants permitting reform, that is sort of simmering but never quite gets going in any kind of meaningful way,” she said, adding, “It’s very doubtful we do anything in the end of the year.”
Reporter Emma Dumain contributed.
