One step closer to sealing his legacy with bipartisan permitting reform, Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) along with his cosponsor John Barrasso (R-WY) were able to advance their bill last week; it sailed through committee on a 15-4 vote. This is good news.
Permitting reform is long overdue. In fact, at the exact same time The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 was being deliberated in committee, a nearby hearing on the future of electric vehicles was lamenting the dire need to revamp permitting in this country. They are not alone. The common thread in energy-related hearings on Capitol Hill is the urgency to update and streamline the permitting process.
This bill aims to reform permitting on all fronts by unclogging the congestion currently making it difficult for projects to move forward. It will clean up the backlog and expedite the process.
The average timeline for a project to obtain necessary National Environmental Policy Act reviews is 4.5 years. For transmission projects, it is closer to 6.5. Such lengthy time frames are not only unacceptable but tend to create or exacerbate problems.
Several wildfires have burned millions of acres throughout the West because states are having to wait six or seven years for approvals and permitting to conduct much needed prescribed burns. Managed forests are more resilient to drought, high temperatures, fire, and insects; unkept forests are a tinderbox, just waiting for a fire to ignite and spread.
Many infrastructure projects experience a significant increase in costs on account of the permitting process. The complexity of the regulatory requirements necessitates additional resources and legal compliance expenses. And the costs of the projects themselves can experience inflation, generally exceeding original budget forecasts.
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Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal.