There's a good story in E&E News today about renewed permitting reform negotiations this Congress. It mentions that they'll use the Energy Permitting Reform Act as a starting point. It will be a challenge because a lot of the key positions in congressional committees are now held by different MOCs than they were last year. Some are very receptive to the need for permitting reform and well-versed in bipartisan negotiations, others less so.
@Dana Nuccitelli Good article. I hope to see a lot more discussion of permitting reform on these pages.
I hope that the fact that we (CLL) supported the last version of permitting reform does not mean we are automatically locked into throwing our support behind future versions similarly labeled. While there is a real need for this reform I have two major concerns.
First, the permitting reform work needs to be truly bipartisan. Especially now, we could very easily see a situation where the reform is far more beneficial to carbon producing projects than carbon reducing ones resulting in a major net worsening of our climate goals.
Second, for the foreseeable future, achieving our climate goals (and the other environmental preservation goals most of us share) will be much more dependent on legal action than we envisioned last year. Therefore we should be more mindful about reducing those protections.
Last month I, along with many of you, took a deep dive into the permitting reform aspects of the Fix our Forests Act. In the end there were some aspects I was uncomfortable with but overall it appeared likely to positively benefit climate and health. That conclusion was largely based on my confidence in the professionalism of the people at the National Forest Service and similar agencies. With the competent professionals being dismissed and the agencies being politicized that confidence is lost. There is increased need for legal scrutiny and procedural rigor.
Very challenging work ahead.
E&E has another story on this subject, as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had a hearing on permitting reform. There was a lot of bipartisan agreement that it's important to expedite permitting processes so we can build infrastructure faster. Senator Whitehouse also reportedly said:
that Democrats would go nowhere near a deal to overhaul the nation's permitting laws until the Trump administration ends its “lawless regard for congressional authority and judicial orders … “We can have zero confidence that any legislative compromise on permitting reform will be executed lawfully."
Which, in my personal opinion, is a totally valid position. But it will be interesting to see what it will take for Senate Democrats to feel comfortable that the Trump administration will execute permitting reforms lawfully.
@Dana Nuccitelli
That question is easy, Ds will never be comfortable. But we still have to try.
@Dana Nuccitelli permitting reform for clean-energy projects is very important. Legislation is needed to shorten the long delays that occur now in getting regulatory approval for projects like renewable-energy power plants and new or enlarged transmission lines to carry the power to where it is needed. Right now it can take many years to get all the necessary approvals. The climate can't wait! However, I have strong reservations about streamlining the permit process as
the EPA plans to close all environmental Justice offices and the super-chip Artificial Intelligence/data mining industry will be hogging energy supplies and influencing energy prices, the US and world economy. Energy prices will probably skyrocket.
The downside of AI has not been publicized enough. Actually in my opinion the dangers outweigh the benefits.
The economically disadvantaged and minority groups will continue to be disenfranchised. Environmental injustice will prevail if we don't fix the system. Congress is broken. Too many members of Congress have been compromised by threats, influence money or both.
We need good strong environmental laws and courts and the ability to move fast on approving good clean-energy projects.
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