E&E: Climate caucus urges bipartisan action on permitting
E&E DAILY | In its first official action since its reboot earlier this year, the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus is asking leadership of both parties to prioritize an overhaul of the federal permitting system for energy projects.
“We are eager to work with you on several key issues which can, and will, make a difference in advancing our nation’s climate and energy goals and commitments,” 26 of the 64 members wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
“Notably, we are encouraged at the prospect of advancing permitting reform to bolster our domestic energy supply — the need for which cannot be understated.”
The members of the Climate Solutions Caucus — evenly split between the two parties and co-chaired by Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — noted that there was more work to do in building off the narrow set of revisions to the nation’s permitting laws secured as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling.
That included some changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, designed to speed up the process by which energy projects can get off the ground.
The debt ceiling agreement also provided for a government study of what it would take to expand transmission deployment, a key ingredient to massively scaling up renewable energy endeavors.
Many Democratic climate hawks were disappointed, if not irate, that a larger transmission component was not addressed while NEPA, a bedrock environmental protection statute, was in some areas weakened.
Negotiators at that time insisted the debt bill was just a step in permitting reform talks, and key committee chairs and ranking members on both sides of the Capitol have continued talking.
"We believe this represents a starting point for future permitting reform initiatives and that by furthering Congressional action, it is our hope that we can work to further reduce the uncertainty and risk associated with domestic energy projects, which can impede progress or prevent projects from being delivered," the climate caucus members wrote.
But although there are plenty of areas for agreement that changing permitting laws will help achieve climate goals, differences persist around NEPA and transmission deployment, and little progress has been reported.
The Climate Solutions Caucus hopes to be where lawmakers can find common ground now.
One member of the caucus and a letter cosigner, Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), has been engaging with Republicans on a bipartisan permitting framework and recently introduced H.R. 5551, the "Building Integrated Grids With Inter-Regional Energy Supply (BIG WIRES) Act," which would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to oversee the construction of an interregional transmission system that would clear the way for more clean energy projects.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) has introduced companion legislation, S. 2827, in the Senate.
Caucus members said there is urgency to act.
"In its 2023 report, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that the world is likely to surpass the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures by the 2030s," the members wrote.
"As you know, Americans are already experiencing the many devastating impacts of rising global temperatures, which continues to impact communities at home and around the globe."
They added, "We have no time to waste to further advance U.S. leadership in the energy and environmental sector."