CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia manufacturers and business interests are hopeful the U.S. Senate’s permitting reform bill will receive final passage before the end of the calendar year during the lame duck Congress.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, other Republican senators and several Democrats announced agreement on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 last week. It’s goal is to accelerate the deployment of both traditional and clean energy infrastructure by slashing regulatory delays.
“To put it simply, we need to be building things faster in America and so we view this as a great bipartisan step forward in moving in that direction in getting to where we need to be on this,” West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Vice President Brian Dayton told MetroNews.
Dayton said he’s encouraged that senators on both sides of the aisle are in support of the bill.
“Not just from both parties, but really a broad spectrum ideologically standing up there together was very encouraging for us. We view that as very positive towards the prospect of this legislation making it all the way through and becoming law,” Dayton said.
The news conference announcing the agreement included Capito, as well as Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, and senators Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, and Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico.
West Virginia Manufacturers Association President Bill Bissett said doing anything in business is a risk. He said the delays currently experienced in getting the proper permits increases that risk.
“You invest capital, you come up with an idea, you come up with products that you think in the market will be well-received but when you can’t guarantee when something is going to make it to market because of these permitting issues, it basically increases that risk many times over,” Bissett told MetroNews.
Bissett said the speed by which permits can be gained on the state level has improved and it’s time for the federal government to catch up.
“At the federal level we are often paralyzed,” Bissett said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a windmill or a nuclear power plant, nothing has happened. It has all gotten frozen by bureaucrats and this (proposed bill) creates a process and a timeline that creates a lot better confidence by everyone in the private sector.”
Bissett and Dayton both said speeding up permitting doesn’t mean environmental concerns will be ignored. Those concerns are addressed in the bill.
Bissett, Dayton, West Virginia Coal Association Chris Hamilton and others all applaud Capito for being able to bring senators together and negotiate a deal.
“We thank Senator Capito for keeping West Virginia’s energy workers and communities at the forefront of this effort, and we look forward to seeing this legislation advance,” Hamilton said in a news release.
Capito said last week the goal is to have the Senate to vote on the bill when it returns to work after the Nov. 3 General Election.
“We were sent here to do big things. Sometimes big things can happen in lame duck, and so we’re we’re banking on it. We’re banking on our colleagues seeing what this does for everybody and the bipartisan nature of it,” Capito said.
Dayton hopes so.
“When you have something that has bipartisan agreement and bipartisan support right out of the gate, I think that always makes it easier to deal with in the months following an election before a new Congress is seated,” Dayton said.