The House has passed two significant permitting reform bills that would help protect affordable power nationwide by reducing delays for electric cooperatives making crucial improvements to their systems.
“Federal environmental permitting has become increasingly complex, unpredictable and unworkable over time,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “It interferes with co-op efforts to maintain the infrastructure that is essential to keeping the lights on and build new infrastructure to meet growing demand. These hurdles delay critical projects and can significantly increase costs for electric co-op consumers.”
But bills passed by the House over the past eight days offer solutions to those problems, Matheson said.
House members voted 221-196 on Dec. 18 to approve the bipartisan Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, which would streamline the requirements imposed by the National Environmental Policy Act on electric co-ops applying for federal permits to build new generation, transmission and distribution capacity, strengthen existing systems or perform crucial maintenance work.
The bill’s lead sponsors, House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, say it would shorten permitting timelines and reduce the frequency of “frivolous litigation” that stymies construction of vital infrastructure.
In another important change, co-ops would no longer have to go through the NEPA review process every time they get federal grants or other types of funding for an improvement project.
“The passage of the SPEED Act is a win for America,” Westerman said. “For too long, America’s broken permitting process has stifled economic growth and innovation. To build the infrastructure needed to deliver affordable energy to American families and defend against 21st-century threats, we must fix this process. The SPEED Act will encourage investment, bring certainty to permitting, end abusive litigation, and allow America to build again.”
The House also voted 221-205 on Dec. 11 to pass the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act, which was introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga. The NRECA-supported bill would improve permitting under the Clean Water Act by cutting red tape and providing greater regulatory certainty for co-ops that obtain permits.
“The PERMIT Act is a package of commonsense reforms to Clean Water Act permitting processes that will help lower construction costs and utility bills, speed up infrastructure project timelines and provide greater regulatory certainty,” Graves said after the bill passed.
“The reforms in the PERMIT Act will have immediate impact on energy producers, the agriculture industry, home and road builders, water utilities, and everyday Americans who have to navigate complex and confusing permitting processes.”
Both bills must still be passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.