Our focus areas for Permitting Reform
Mindy Ahler
264 Posts

We've had a number of questions from offices about what we think about particular pieces of permitting reform. We have created this document to help clarify. This is primarily to help volunteers in their conversations with offices and followup to lobby meetings, so you can copy and paste sections that might be relevant to your discussions. The key section is repeated below, but there is a bit more context included in the document.

Below are the pieces of a permitting reform package that CCL is most engaged on and we feel are most important for a comprehensive package that will have a meaningful climate impact. CCL’s Government Affairs department is still engaging on other pieces, but remains most focused on these four policy areas.

Transmission Reform

Increasing the grid’s capacity to transport electricity is critical to allow more clean energy projects to be built and reduce America’s energy insecurity, electricity bills, and climate pollution. Several studies have found that US transmission capacity must double or triple by 2050.

Build Faster

Clean energy projects often encounter long, complex permitting steps that slow construction and raise costs. Practical reforms—such as improving federal review timelines, modernizing NEPA processes, and enhancing coordination among agencies—can help ensure that good projects move forward faster while upholding environmental and community protections.

Certainty

Administrations from both parties have selectively obstructed certain types of energy projects. Stable, predictable permitting is essential for all energy developers—especially for scaling clean energy.

Community Engagement

Reforms that promote early, frequent engagement with impacted communities will lead to better projects and fewer lengthy, project-delaying lawsuits.

3 Replies
Lisa Ruckman
234 Posts

@Mindy Ahler Thanks! This is very helpful for our follow-up emails.

@Mindy Ahler I've been hearing ads pushing permitting reform from the American Petroleum Institute on NY Times audio. Their web site has some general information on permitting reform, but isn't that specific if I recall correctly. Do you know what differences there are between what they want and what we want? Are there any potentially bad provisions in a bill that we could communicate to MOCs to watch out for?


Energy companies/industries of all stripes want permitting reform to expedite onerous, time-consuming processes, @Robert J Hudson. But in any case, keep an eye out for our permitting reform training series starting in January to learn more details about the topic 🤓

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