House Environmental Caucus Backs Permitting Reform

HOUSE ENVIRONMENTAL CAUCUS BACKS PERMITTING REFORM: The House Democrat-led Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition is carefully endorsing permitting reform, so long as it allows more community engagement in the review and approval of energy projects and doesn't favor fossil fuel ventures.

The SEEC, made up of several signatories to Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva's letter opposing the Manchin-Schumer permitting deal, is wading into the permitting debate today with a policy brief stressing the need to build more transmission lines while enabling locals to be more involved earlier on in the project's process.

"Renewable energy is only as good as the electrical system upon which it relies," says the brief, which promotes "clean energy-focused permitting reform" to more quickly approve transmission projects.

The brief's recommendations reflect Sen. Joe Manchin's reform legislation in a few key ways, particularly by providing for the government to deem certain projects to be in the "national interest" and expanding FERC's authority over interstate transmission.

Manchin's bill does something similar, although it would extend beyond transmission and provide for other projects, including fossil fuel projects, to be deemed in the national interest and prioritized.

Other differences between Manchin's bill and the SEEC's recommendations center on community engagement. The SEEC brief disputes the notion that more chime-in from locals is what's responsible for project delays, arguing that community engagement instead doesn't happen early enough during the process. Manchin's bill would put strictures on litigation against projects.