Manchin

CHARLESTON — With less than six months before his term ends, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is making another attempt at a permitting reform package. 

Manchin, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, and ranking Republican ENR Committee member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., released Monday the text and details Monday of the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.

“The United States of America is blessed with abundant natural resources that have powered our nation to greatness and allow us to help our friends and allies around the world. Unfortunately, today our outdated permitting system is stifling our economic growth, geopolitical strength, and ability to reduce emissions,” Manchin, I-W.Va., said in a statement.

“After over a year of holding hearings in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, thoughtfully considering input from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and engaging in good faith negotiations, Ranking Member Barrasso and I have put together a commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation that will speed up permitting and provide more certainty for all types of energy and mineral projects without bypassing important protections for our environment and impacted communities,” Manchin continued.

“For far too long, Washington’s disastrous permitting system has shackled American energy production and punished families in Wyoming and across our country,” Barrasso said. “Congress must step in and fix this process. Our bipartisan bill secures future access to oil and gas resources on federal lands and waters.”

The Energy Permitting Reform Act would expedite judicial review of energy infrastructure projects and shorten timelines in pending litigation. It establishes a 150-day statute of limitation beginning on the final day of agency action of a proposed energy project.

The bill creates an accelerated process for onshore energy and mineral extraction while not going around existing environmental and land-use laws. And for offshore energy, the bill requires an annual wind lease sale or oil/gas lease sale from 2025 to 2029 while keeping in place requirement environmental reviews.

The act would make reforms to the federal processes and siting authority for new electric transmission lines across multiple states and requires regionals to develop transmission line planning and how costs are allocated. The bill required the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to review federal regulations on power plants and provide feedback on possible effects on electric reliability.

Also, the Energy Permitting Reform Act would set a 90-day deadline for the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy to either grant or deny applications for liquid natural gas exports. If the secretary does not meet the deadline, the application would be considered automatically approved. The provision comes after an attempt by President Joe Biden to pause consideration of new LNG exports was rejected by a federal court earlier this month.

“We permanently end President Biden’s reckless ban on natural gas exports,” Barrasso said. “And we ensure we can strengthen our electric grid while protecting customers. This legislation is an urgent and important first step towards improving our nation’s broken permitting process.”

The bill was quickly opposed Monday by the Sierra Club, which denounced it as an attempt to open federal lands and water to extraction.

“Those who promote this kind of so-called ‘permitting reform’ claim that it’s necessary to accelerate the deployment of clean energy, but in truth this is nothing more than yet another attempt by fossil fuel industry boosters to give handouts for polluters at the expense of our communities and the climate,” said Sierra Club Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy Director Mahyar Sorour.

Last year, some permitting reform was included in a debt ceiling deal. That package included language that allowed for the completion of the 304-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline transporting natural gas from Wetzel County to pipelines in Virginia and North Carolina. 

Other permitting reform provisions in the debt ceiling deal include imposing deadlines for regulatory agencies to issue permits, speeding up environmental reviews of permitting energy projects, simplifying communications between federal agencies issuing permits for the same project and streamlining the overall review process. But Manchin has advocated for more permitting reform beyond what has already been accomplished.

“The Energy Permitting Reform Act will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader,” Manchin said. “The time to act on it is now.”