Republicans and Democrats claim to favor permitting reform that would remove bureaucratic obstacles to energy and infrastructure projects. But time is running out as partisan bickering instead of progress carries the day. It doesn’t have to be that way.
At least four pieces of pending permitting legislation remain in limbo, particularly in the Senate, despite bipartisan recognition that delays and nuisance lawsuits drive up costs and threaten the viability of important projects. Two of those bills — the SPEED Act and the PERMIT Act — have even passed the House. But getting anything through the Senate right now creates a number of challenges, according to reports.
“For all the common ground in both parties around encouraging more energy production and accelerating projects of all types,” Politico reported in May, “permitting also touches on thorny issues for congressional Republicans, Democrats and this White House.”
Most of the pending bills address issues of efficiency and transparency as developers and energy producers navigate the sea of red tape that characterizes the federal bureaucracy. They also seek to limit delays and to hold agencies accountable for obstructionism.
For instance, the RED Tape Act waives an EPA rule that requires environmental impact statements even when other agencies are already doing the same work.
But both parties face pressure from various interest groups. Democrats are wary of upsetting the environmental lobby, Politico reports, while Republicans worry about granting Washington too much control over states. Meanwhile, the White House’s hostility toward wind and solar has Democrats hesitant to move forward, the outlet noted.
But reform would be best applied neutrally to both fossil fuel and renewable energy. Scrutinizing federal handouts for green energy projects is certainly appropriate. Yet a concerted effort to stall all wind or solar energy development is counterproductive, as was the Biden administration’s clumsy effort to strangle the oil and gas industries.
The goal of permitting reform should be to unleash the power of American ingenuity to ensure the timely development of the nation’s resources in a fashion that benefits U.S. consumers and the economy alike. Allowing politicians to pick and choose what interests will benefit from relaxing bureaucratic hurdles risks descending into cronyism and creating more inefficiencies.
“We need to seize the moment,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the West Virginia Republican who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, told Politico, “and there needs to be certainty for all energy projects. That’s the issue.”
If that requires compromise from all involved, so be it. Anything less will be a missed opportunity — and a loss for American consumers and economic development.
