Bipartisan steps are needed to cull infrastructure permitting inefficiencies, particularly if ambitious US energy-sector carbon reduction goals are to be achieved, participants at a US Chamber of Commerce forum said May 13.
And with a partisan divide on Capitol Hill looming over what to include in an infrastructure package, permitting reforms were cast as a policy area that could bring Republicans on board while also helping Democrats overcome likely hurdles to a clean energy buildout.
Republican Representatives Garret Graves of Louisiana and Rodney Davis of Illinois highlighted proposals to set two-year limits on environmental reviews, force coordination among agencies, and in some cases defer to state reviews, and said a key step will be adding permitting reform in any infrastructure plan moving in Congress.
"We can't just focus on dollars being the only metric of commitment to infrastructure," Graves said.
Permitting capacity limits
Jason Grumet of the Bipartisan Policy Center questioned whether there is capacity within the existing US permitting framework to meet a challenge within the next 30 years to achieve a globally sustainable net-zero economy -- reducing the remaining emissions by 90%.
"We're not going to solve this challenge project-by-project. We have to figure out how to do broad, mega, wholesale permitting of things we want, and get communities involved in the front end," Grumet said.
"We simply are going to have to agree about national priorities and find a way for states and local governments to be part of that process," he said.
Along similar lines, Heather Zichal of the American Clean Power Association described the challenge of increasing transmission lines 60% in order to "bring the kinds of renewable penetration this administration is talking about."
"If you're going to take seven years to permit it, and there's a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability, and at the end of the day you may or may not get that permits, that's not only holding back investment decisions," she said. "It's really having a meaningful impact on our ability to meet these deep emission reductions in the time that science tells us we need to."
Amid dueling infrastructure approaches pitched by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, the BPC May 12 pitched its own version of $1 trillion infrastructure package, with $300 billion for a clean energy transition and a slew of recommendations for streamlining reviews.
Davis, ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, who counted himself among the most bipartisan House members, said he hoped to get bipartisan agreement on his "One Federal Decision Act," which limits the time and scope of reviews. He was optimistic that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor, was an ally, after speaking with him about the need to restructure the permitting process.
"I'm more than willing to listen and make some changes that will actually work," Davis said.
Party divides
"My biggest fear is that we're going to see a large, multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment bill work through a reconciliation process that gives us zero input as Republicans, and [that] the regulatory reforms that are necessary to make these projects move forward and achieve any semblance of a goal of rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, [are] going to get tossed aside because of discussions that will go way beyond what infrastructure investment is all about," said Davis.
Yet to be seen is whether lawmakers can overcome fierce policy battles over the details of when and how to scale back National Environmental Policy Act reviews. Environmentalists, who have often challenged fossil fuel infrastructure on grounds of NEPA violations, had warned Trump Administration NEPA reforms would effectively gut goals of the act, including the role for public participation.
Graves, who has co-sponsored the so-called BUILD Act to rein in NEPA reviews, said he had a great meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris about permitting reform ideas.
Including such reforms in the infrastructure bill would help "bridge the divide that you've seen in this whole infrastructure debate, because we can deliver greater infrastructure, greater scope, greater scale and faster delivery for American folks," Graves said.
David Hayes, a special assistant to the president for climate policy, said Biden has agreed to "double down" on some permitting improvements from prior years, including use of a federal steering council that helps coordinate agency action, a public dashboard and pre-consultation before environmental review. He noted Biden's early executive order on climate called for an examination of permitting processes and identification of steps to accelerate deployment of clean energy and transmission.
A transmission buildout will require new ways to integrate state and federal permitting reviews, he said.
