Manchin to reintroduce permitting bill after Schumer declares GOP effort ‘dead’
Jeremy Beaman
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will reintroduce his environmental permitting reform legislation that failed to pass during the last Congress after Democratic leadership vowed to block House Republicans’ legislation, H.R. 1.
Manchin’s bill would be the first Democratic proposal to be put on the table after Republicans in the lower chamber passed the Lower Energy Costs Act in March. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said House passage would be the end of the line for the GOP-led bill, which sought to enable increased production of fossil fuels and to enact more sweeping reforms to permitting laws than most Democrats support.
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Manchin said the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs, would use its jurisdiction to hold hearings on his bill. The chairman made the announcement Tuesday morning at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce focused on permitting reform, a priority across industries that require federal approvals to build infrastructure projects, such as roads, wind farms, and electric transmission lines.
The Building American Energy Security Act of 2022, as the bill was known during the previous Congress, received bipartisan support in a December vote but came up short due to opposition from most Republicans and a handful of liberal Democrats in the chamber.
Manchin’s goal is to get at least 30 Democrats and 30 Republicans to vote for the bill, Manchin said. Only seven Republicans backed the bill before, but the party broadly supports reforms that would cut down on the time it takes for agencies to review projects under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws.
Manchin also criticized Schumer for deeming Republicans’ energy and permitting bill as “dead on arrival.”
“Nothing should be dead on arrival. There should be something we can take” and improve, he said.
Industry groups representing renewable energy projects and traditional fossil fuel energy alike are pushing for permitting reform.
Data show the U.S. permits major projects more slowly on average than other nations, including Canada and Australia.
For supportive Democrats, reforms are necessary to maximize the benefit of subsidies that Congress passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, the party’s signature green energy and healthcare spending law.
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Manchin’s bill, which President Joe Biden endorsed, would give the president authority to mark more than two dozen energy projects as projects of strategic interest that deserve special attention. Those projects would have to serve different sources, including fossil fuels and renewables.
It would also seek to speed up siting and permitting of electric transmission by expanding the authorities of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as require the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline originating in West Virginia that continues to face legal setbacks under challenge from environmental opponents.