West Virginia’s senators continue to push for energy permitting reform, with Senator Joe Manchin helming a high-profile committee meeting on the topic.
“We’re at the point now, if we’re going to move forward and have the energy security we need for our country and have the reliable energy we need for every citizen, a reliable energy grid that works, and be able to help our allies, then we have to put product in the market,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a call with reporters.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, which Manchin chairs, plans a full hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday on the permitting process for energy and mineral projects.
Witnesses for the hearing include the chief of the American Clean Power Association, the president of the National Mining Association, the president of the AFL-CIO and an executive with Jonah Energy, an oil and natural gas company.
Aspects of permitting reform are part of the House Republican bill addressing the debt ceiling and future spending.
Manchin said if that bill is taken up in the Senate, then senators could be ready. But more broadly he described a timeline for consideration of permitting reform that would not be tied to the urgent debt ceiling deadline.
“If they’re going to be moving that legislation with the permitting in it, we’ll be ready to go,” he said. “But if it doesn’t, we’ve had bills introduced.”
Manchin described different pieces of permitting legislation sponsored by several different senators, including Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Even more legislation has been introduced by Democratic and Republican leaders of the Energy and Environment and Public Works committees.
“So we’re looking at all of those. That’s the process, and then we have to put them together. That would take longer than the end of the month, when they’re supposed to vote, unless they have an extension on the debt ceiling,” Manchin said.
“We’re doing this as expeditiously as possible, to be ready. This is going to get done. I can assure you. If it doesn’t get done, shame on all of us.”
Manchin has long touted changes to make energy permitting smoother and faster. Last fall, he was frustrated over the legislative failure of comprehensive energy permitting reform policies as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. “As frustrating as the political games of Washington are, I will not give up,” he said then.
That bill got some bipartisan support but needed 13 more votes to meet a filibuster threshold and advance.
So Manchin is continuing to tout that same bill but acknowledges that changes would need to be made to gain enough support. Now he is the sponsor of legislation called the “Building American Energy Security Act of 2023.”
“It is clear that without comprehensive permitting reform we will never ensure lasting American energy security and independence and will delay progress on environmental goals,” Manchin stated in an announcement of his sponsorship.
Capito, his Republican counterpart, has also been pushing for permitting reform. Capito, who serves on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has introduced legislation called the Revitalizing the Economy by Simplifying Timelines and Assuring Regulatory Transparency Act.
It would set deadlines for reviews of permitting projects, allow projects to move forward if the regulatory agency misses a deadline, set limits and deadlines on judicial challenges and other reforms.
“The current permitting and project review process slows the construction of roads and bridges, discourages domestic energy production, and minimizes investments made in our nation’s infrastructure, all of which has resulted in fewer jobs and higher prices for Americans,” Capito said as her version of the bill was introduced.
The White House today outlined its own priorities for permitting reform legislation. The Biden administration described improvements in the speed and scale of building clean energy projects while also updating mining permitting regulations.
White House clean energy adviser John Podesta commented that the White House supports the permitting reform legislation that Manchin has sponsored, at least as a starting point.
“The president doesn’t love everything in the bill but we support it because that’s what compromise means and it will take compromise on everyone’s part to get this done,” he said.
The Sierra Club praised the clean energy aspects of the White House’s permitting reform priorities. “However, any compromise that would fast track fossil fuel projects or erode bedrock environmental protections like the National Environmental Policy Act or the Clean Water Act is a non-starter – period,” the environmental organization stated.