Lawmakers’ demands on a bipartisan permitting package are piling up, complicating what’s likely to be a rocky path to President Joe Biden’s desk by year’s end.
In the past few weeks, talks behind closed doors have become frequent. Suddenly, it seems, everyone wants a piece of the permitting pie being baked by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
“We want to make sure we get as much benefit as possible,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), an ally of Manchin. “If we’re going to go through the headache to get this damn thing passed, we want to make sure it does as much for the people of America as possible.”
While Manchin and Barrasso are feeling confident after their bill — the “Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024,” S. 4753 — sailed out of committee in July, demands on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers are steep.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a key climate-conscious Democrat, said his support hinges on a path forward for two of his favored bills.
“My response to questions about the permitting bill is that it depends on the inclusion of offshore wind,” he said. “And to a certain extent it depends on their being a strategy for RISEE, which is its own permitting reform.”
Whitehouse was referring to his legislation that would address permitting wind energy infrastructure as well as revenue-sharing streams for the states with robust offshore oil and wind power.
In the House, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) argued the bipartisan legislation had no future there without inclusion of components from his bill, the “Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act,” H.R. 6747, which 80 Democrats “across the ideological spectrum” have signed on to.
“I’m not saying that to be cocky, I’m just saying that as a practical matter,” he told POLITICO’s E&E News in a recent interview.
Among House Republicans, Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) has floated his GOP offering: a draft discussion of changes to the National Environmental Policy Act reviews. It already gave the committee’s Democrats heartburn.
Westerman said his discussion draft could be marked up as early as this week. “We’re not in a big hurry,” he said. “We may do it in the lame duck.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who already supported the bill in committee, was also in favor of making changes to NEPA.
“We really need — what I’ve pushed for and I don’t know if it’ll get in or not — is a timeline” for certain reviews such as environmental impact statements. He added that the private conversations happening now “are important to see if there can be enough agreement.”
And hydropower backers are pushing for permitting changes they’ve long championed make their way into any package.
One potential Republican obstacle could be Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a former state utilities regulator who has been among the loudest opponents to amending the Federal Power Act, which regulates interstate electricity transmission.
He has voiced his opposition to the transmission provisions in the bill, but he wavered when asked exactly how he plans to proceed. “I’m happy to help fix it if it needs fixing and if necessary try to kill the bill,” he said.
He specifically pointed to the transmission provision that would try to make it easier to build out the grid and set clearer standards for who pays for new power lines.
“I just don’t like the transmission piece. I think allowing merchants to build a transmission outside of the utility process and then recover the cost — it’s a perverse incentive to overbuild … that’s kind of my last thing. It’s really that.”
Exuding confidence
Barrasso, who is poised to be the Republican whip next year, urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to call up the bill soon.
“We ought to have that bill on the floor now rather than the Schumer show-votes that aren’t going anywhere,” he said. “There are things that we ought to be doing this week and next week. Chuck Schumer doesn’t care about doing anything legislatively. I’d like to get this done now.”
Asked if he was confident he had the votes, he said: “If we get this bill to the floor, I’m going to do everything I can, as is Joe Manchin.”
As a political matter, Casten says that the package, as currently written, won’t attract enough support from the left.
“I think the world where there’s a permitting package that is led by the right-most Democratic and the left-most Republican, and you expand out the middle to get to 218 describes Congress circa, like, 1995,” he said. “That’s just not the way permitting is going to go through.”
Put simply, there are Democrats who prioritize cutting carbon emissions above all and point to new positive modeling from policy shops; there are progressive Democrats who point to harms to already overburdened communities over shortening environmental review; there are Republicans who don’t want states rights sacrificed by climate goals in blue states; there are Republicans who argue amending the National Environmental Policy Act environmental review lifts all boats — as it eases delays for solar, wind, geothermal and transmission projects as well as fossil fuels.
Manchin, who is retiring at the end of the year, has made it clear he wants permitting reform to be part of his legacy. Though he said Thursday that he was personally open to the Westerman ideas — in other words, changing NEPA — he has not been too keen on the viability of those ideas getting bipartisan buy-in.
He noted his bill already includes litigation limits — long a Republican priority that’s turning off some Democrats. But he’s open to compromise.
“Westerman is a good man,” he said, but then took a bit of a swipe at the Arkansas Republican’s bill. “We work with him. We had dinner to talk about all this, and I think basically it’s just a partisan bill.”
Manchin’s West Virginia counterpart, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, said she understood his hesitation to cater too much to others’ demands.
“I understand that because you come out of committee 15-4 you are on a roll,” said Capito, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “When you start loading it up with things, your support starts to dissipate.”
Reporters Emma Dumain and Andres Picon contributed.
