EPRA and Community Engagement
Paul Kane
126 Posts

The Energy Permitting Reform Act allows the Department of Interior to accept funding from renewable energy companies to improve community engagement. Does EPRA do anything else to address community engagement? Early community engagement was one of the key points of reform in our lobbying on permitting reform back in June. I know that recent White House rules have addressed this, but as we have discussed many times, getting things into law is more robust against changes in the Executive Branch.

5 Replies

Hi @Paul Kane, I discussed this at the latest CCU training here:

Brett Cease
3840 Posts

Thanks @Paul Kane, one summary note to add in addition to Dana's great training link:

As I understand it, the current bill only addresses things over which the Senate Energy committee has jurisdiction and most community engagement topics fall within the Senate's Environment & Public Works committee. This constrains what might be currently possible to include, but our government affairs staff has wanted to continue to emphasize that they are looking at opportunities as the bill advances keeping in mind the fragile balance of interests that are compromising in its current form to get bipartisan support.

Paul Kane
126 Posts

@Brett Cease Thanks Brett, that's the explanation I was looking for. I've been asked about this by local CCL members who are concerned that this will not get enough attention in the subsequent dealmaking. Certain communities are understandably concerned that they'll be thrown under the bus while everyone else is talking about models and math. I spent my scientific career doing models and math, but have had to learn the hard way that we can't gain everyone's trust solely on that basis.

Paul Kane
126 Posts

@Brett Cease Thinking about this further, what would be the likely process for 1) including EPRA in a lame duck omnibus bill and 2) modifying EPRA provisions to gain support from House, Senate and President? If EPRA were to proceed as a standalone, it might be referred to other Senate committees for markup, returned to the main body, etc. But there's no time left for that, so I guess my question(s) boil down to: how does an omnibus bill get written, how does it get amended, and what are the points of leverage that CCL can use to advocate for changes if we have concerns?

Hi @Paul Kane. I don't know the nitty gritty of the process, but that's the plan – for Senators to include the Energy Permitting Reform Act in a lame duck omnibus package. And they'll probably agree to any changes to the bill before it's included, based on what can get the necessary bipartisan support to pass. CCL staff is engaging on the Hill in suggesting possible improvements, for example in terms of community involvement provisions, but it's a delicate balance so it's ultimately up to Congressional offices.

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