The House Natural Resources Committee approved bipartisan legislation Thursday meant to accelerate federal approvals of infrastructure and energy projects, a reform that members of both parties say is necessary to prevent all kinds of projects from being tied up by bureaucracy.
Rep. Bruce Westerman’s (R-AR) permitting reform bill, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act, or SPEED, Act, advanced out of the committee Thursday afternoon after a more than five-hour hearing in a 25-18 vote.
Many Democrats had been reluctant to support the permitting reform legislation because, they argued, it failed to provide safeguards for renewable energy projects amid the Trump administration’s crackdown. Republicans were able to win over some Democrats by adding an amendment that would prevent the executive office from revoking permits for clean energy projects.
House Republicans launched the most recent effort to accelerate environmental reviews and approvals earlier this summer, taking aim at the bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act.
Better known as the NEPA, the 1970 law requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental effects of major actions and decisions relevant to their departments. This affects most federal approvals for major energy and infrastructure projects such as new power plants, upgraded transmission lines, data centers, or highways.
Critics of the law have long claimed that it slows domestic infrastructure growth through legal delays and bureaucratic red tape. Meanwhile, supporters have hit back, insisting the NEPA is critical for avoiding the endangerment of public lands and wildlife while mitigating the effects of climate change.
Passing meaningful permitting reform is a top priority for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as there is widespread agreement that it has become too difficult to build in the United States.
While Republicans seek to unlock new fossil fuel production and infrastructure, Democrats are aiming to accelerate the development of renewable energy resources, as well as traditional infrastructure projects in their regions.
Despite the bipartisan interest, most Democrats have been hesitant to back the proposed legislation due to the Trump administration’s use of its executive authorities to block the construction and development of renewable power, such as wind and solar energy.
The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), emphasized these concerns during Thursday’s hearing.
If President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum “weren’t illegally blocking wind and solar projects right now, firing the permitting steps, cutting funding for agencies, we’d be having a very different conversation about permitting legislation,” Huffman said.
“Let me be very clear: Democrats have never blocked fossil fuel projects the way the Trump administration is blocking wind and solar,” he said.
As of Thursday, Westerman said, there were seven Republican and seven Democratic co-sponsors of the SPEED Act. While other Democratic members have expressed interest in supporting the bill, several said there is still work to be done.
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) said permitting reform is necessary to make it easier to add energy to the grid to help lower costs for households. But Magaziner said he could not support a permitting reform without language to ensure the administration cannot continue to block renewable energy projects.
“In order for me to vote for this bill, I need strong language to ensure that the Trump administration cannot continue to unfairly block clean energy projects from getting into the grid,” Magaziner said.
“Unfortunately, I’m concerned that the bill in front of us today does not do enough to stop the administration’s war on clean energy today,” he said.
Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), who does not sit on the Natural Resources Committee, expressed similar desires ahead of Thursday’s hearing.
“Recent actions by the Trump Administration to revoke already issued and legally sound permits, and their reluctance or refusal to issue permits for new wind and solar projects is unprecedented and must be prevented going forward,” Peters said. “The language already in the bill is welcome but needs to be strengthened.”
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who was the first co-sponsor of the SPEED Act with Westerman, sought to assuage these concerns with an amendment that would prevent agencies from withdrawing or terminating permits without cause.
The amendment, which was also backed by Republican Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) and supported by Westerman, would require agencies to provide a “clear and convincing” and “rational” reason for a permit withdrawal, require a prior notice, and mandate that any such decision would be subject to judicial review.
Magaziner said he was encouraged to see the amendment added to the bill, but he criticized its failure to account for projects retroactively and to do anything for projects already blocked or paused by the Trump administration.
The amendment was agreed to and added to the bill on Thursday.
The SPEED Act broadly is meant to overhaul and simplify the NEPA and the scope of review required for environmental analyses by removing requirements to consider or conduct new scientific or technical research.
It would also mandate that federal agencies are not permitted to delay the issuance of an environmental review document or decision on the basis of waiting for new scientific research to be released.
Additionally, the bill would limit agencies’ ability to include downstream environmental impacts associated with projects and would shorten the statute of limitations for legal challenges against projects subject to environmental reviews.
In late August, Westerman told the Washington Examiner that he hoped to pass meaningful permitting reform legislation in the House by the end of the year, sending it over to the Senate.
While the Natural Resources Committee was able to hold a hearing on the legislation shortly after Congress returned from the August recess, the longest government shutdown in history repeatedly delayed any plans to mark up the bill.
NEPA: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT IS CENTRAL TO THE PERMITTING REFORM DEBATE
It remains unclear how quickly the bill could head to a floor vote in the House, though Westerman is confident that moving it out of committee will accelerate the process.
“Hopefully, after we pass this bill out of committee, people realize how strong the bill is, how it does provide parity, and Ii’s going to provide certainty, [and] that we can get many more people on board to support it, and even maybe get the Senate instead of take notice that we need to do permitting reform, and we need to do this quickly,” Westerman said.
