CCL Comment on SPEED Act and other stand alone permitting bills.

Mindy Ahler

256 Posts

Yesterday the House Natural Resources Committee held a markup on several bills, including permitting bills H.R. 573, the Studying NEPA's Impact on Projects Act, H.R. 4503, the ePermit Act, and H.R. 4776, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (SPEED Act). The largest and most significant of those bills being the SPEED Act, which would limit the scope of permitting reviews and restrain legal challenges for projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The SPEED Act passed by a vote of 25-18 with two Democrats joining all Republicans in voting in favor.

CCL is actively engaged in ongoing permitting reform discussions, and we remain committed to helping advance a package that can realistically pass and deliver meaningful climate benefits. While we recognize that any viable package will need to include NEPA-related updates—several of which appear in the SPEED Act—we’re not able to endorse the SPEED Act or these other standalone bills on their own.

On its own, a piecemeal approach focused only on NEPA changes won’t achieve the climate outcomes we’re working toward. To be effective, a permitting package must pair those reforms with other important provisions, such as strong measures to expedite and expand transmission infrastructure and to ensure certainty in the permitting process, preventing executive discretion on specific permits. The combination of these provisions is essential for expanding clean energy, achieving emissions reductions, and realizing the energy affordability and reliability both parties say they want to see.

We appreciate the positive momentum on permitting reform and know that this engagement by lawmakers is increasing education on the issue and getting us closer to a comprehensive package. We remain committed to advancing such a package that ultimately benefits the climate.

23hour(s)

2 Replies

Sara Mason

107 Posts

@Mindy Ahler Thank you for this! I just contacted you about this last night and this is super helpful. That said, I'd like to see CCL put out a slightly more nuanced discussion of some of the provisions in this bill (or others that are attracting a lot of attention right now). Changes to NEPA (either the law or how it is implemented) are likely to be some of the major sticking points that we'll have to overcome in NM to get support for a more comprehensive bill. Aspects of a future bill are extremely hard to discuss in the abstract; the response is likely to be “yes, we agree reform needs to happen, and it all depends on the details of the bill in question.” I feel like if I'd been better versed on the SPEED Act, I could have asked better questions to get feedback on how our Representatives feel about the crucial topic of changes to NEPA.

7hour(s)

Bob Blackburn

174 Posts

@Mindy Ahler
Here are some exerpts from the recent Bipartisan Policy Center roundtable discussion of the SPEED Act, whose 40 participant generally agree with the CCL take on the bill. The report includes discussion on 17 components of the Act.

“Participants broadly agreed that the current permitting system for critical energy infrastructure projects is too slow and unpredictable, and that reforms to NEPA and judicial review could meaningfully improve permitting timelines and project certainty. Participants largely supported the overall direction and intent of the SPEED Act, particularly the provisions designed to streamline environmental reviews by setting clearer limits on which environmental effects agencies must study, and to reduce litigation-driven delays. However, there was significant debate over the details, especially concerning the precision of statutory language, the balance between efficiency and environmental oversight, and the degree to which Congress should limit judicial remedies—such as injunctions or vacating permits.”

“To improve the permitting process, roundtable participants agreed on the need to reform NEPA and judicial review. And participants mostly agreed that the SPEED Act’s policy options seek to solve real problems in the current system. Some of these options enjoyed consensus support, but others did not. Most importantly, participants agreed that improvements to NEPA and judicial review are necessary components of a broader permitting reform package that is also likely to include other key policies, such as project certainty and improvements to permitting for transmission and other linear infrastructure.

4hour(s)

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CCL Comment on SPEED Act and other stand alone permitting bills.