In the News
House Democrats on the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition’s Climate Jobs Task Force are sending a letter this morning to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urging her to not issue grants through the 2021 infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act for manufacturing projects located or relocated in states with right-to-work laws.
Clean energy is surging onto the grid as the sector drives a revitalization of American manufacturing. But though Washington, D.C. just launched this new era of industrial policy, threats to it still loom in the nation’s capital.
Democrats came up short on permitting in the debt ceiling deal, and key lawmakers are casting doubt on whether there’s still a viable path this year to bolstering the nation’s electric grid.
The compromise between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) includes faster reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act but leaves out any mandates on transmission. It’s a clear victory for the GOP.
Pending catastrophe, the most important environmental policy debate in Washington this year will be about a set of questions that have come to be known as “permitting reform.”
Essentially, the government is poised to change the laws and procedures that govern how it approves new infrastructure, from highways to subways, wind farms to oil pipelines. The outcome of the debate will alter how America fights climate change and builds clean energy — and whether it further embraces fossil fuels.
Democrats think selling the climate benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act will be key to winning back control of the House next year. A first-term Democrat — a protégé of White House adviser John Podesta — wants the party to have a better pitch.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski of Illinois is uniquely positioned to help in that effort. The 46-year-old has spent most of her career working in the intersection of climate and labor, and in negotiating what she has called the “pain points” in the clean energy transition.
The White House signed back up for Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill, before there’s even a full-fledged Democratic alternative, after the Energy and Natural Resources chairman reintroduced it yesterday.
As talk on a permitting overhaul slowly gathers steam in Congress, two House Democrats are moving forward with their own proposal.
House Democrats in the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition are putting forward their own permitting proposal that would boost FERC’s siting authority while tightening environmental reviews in disadvantaged communities.
House Democrats on Thursday released their permitting reform proposal after House Republicans advanced an energy bill that included measures aimed at streamlining the approval process for projects.