The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee wasted little time vilifying new bipartisan legislation to overhaul a core environmental statute — even as lawmakers in both parties say they want to work together on the issue.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) issued a press release Friday declaring the new “Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act” would be a handout to fossil fuel corporations while silencing communities during the environmental review process.
Led by Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, the “SPEED Act” would overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act by narrowing the scope of federal actions triggering environmental review and cutting down on litigation.
“Chairman Westerman has taken the most tired lie in Washington — that NEPA is to blame for America’s permitting problems — and spun it into an assault on our environmental protections and public input,” Huffman said. “This is not a NEPA “tune up” focused on building “things we need,” as their press release euphemistically spins.”
Huffman said the bill would “shield polluters from scrutiny” and “bury the climate risks of massive fossil fuel projects.”
Westerman and Golden argued the 1970 law is overly complex and ripe for legal abuse. Critics point to environmental group lawsuits accusing agency reviews of being inadequate.
The new bill would narrow the scope for what triggers a NEPA review by redefining “major federal action.” It would also amend what counts as a “reasonably foreseeable” impact. That could downplay long-term climate considerations.
“Although well-intentioned, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has not kept up with the times which is bad for both our environment and our economy,” Westerman said.
But Huffman pointed out the bill would ban the use of new scientific research or updated data that becomes available after a project is proposed. That means agencies would ignore improved wildfire maps or health risk assessments, he argued.
Ashley Nunes, public lands policy specialist for the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Reps. Westerman and Golden are like a toxic tag team, completely willing to gut our nation’s bedrock environmental law and hand our public lands over to industry.” She added, “It doesn’t go so far as to kill NEPA, but would certainly put it in a vegetative state.”
The new bill comes as lawmakers in the House and Senate and from both parties say they want to work on the dicey issue of “permitting reform” that’s eluded them for decades.
More Democrats have come to join Republicans in calling for changing NEPA because of delays in plugging renewable energy projects into the grid.
Rep. Scott Peters (R-Calif.), who falls into that category, applauded the Westerman-Golden effort but stopped short of endorsing the proposal as it stands.
“Rep. Peters appreciates his colleagues putting forth an opening proposal that makes some necessary reforms to the federal permitting process and looks forward to working with his colleagues to get a deal across the finish line,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“He has stated that we are running out of time to avoid astronomically high energy bills, rolling blackouts, and other consequences of the reconciliation bill and President Trump’s executive actions targeting the development of clean energy.”
Aides for Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) did not provide comment by press time.
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will also have to be involved in the talks because of grid components that Democrats are particularly keen on.
Many Republicans have been wary of accelerating grid upgrades, questioning the need to plug in more renewable energy and worried about states’ rights.
Just last week, the Department of Energy, at the urging of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), canceled financing for a transmission project that would connect wind production in rural areas to urban centers. It was opposed by some Missouri farmers.
Indeed, the administration’s broader actions against renewable energy production and to streamline NEPA reviews, along with a Supreme Court ruling limiting the scope of NEPA scrutiny, are making a bipartisan permitting deal harder.
Alex Herrgott, a former Hill aide who led an agency charged with accelerating approvals for certain priority projects during the first Trump administration, said the Westerman-Golden bill “marks the most comprehensive attempt in over a decade to structurally reform the federal permitting process.”
“The SPEED Act tackles the root causes of delay by establishing clear legal boundaries around NEPA scope, imposing enforceable procedural timelines, and restoring judicial discipline to environmental litigation,” Hergott, now head of the Permitting Institute, wrote in an email.
“Its strength lies not in any single provision, but in the way it weaves together structural, procedural, and judicial disciplines into a unified statutory framework.”
