The House Natural Resources Committee advanced a permitting bill Thursday, clearing a big hurdle to crafting broader compromise legislation that lawmakers hope to pass this Congress.
But the markup on “Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act,” H.R. 4776, showed the process has a long way to go.
Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) made changes to the bill to secure more Democratic buy-in. But in the end, the 25-18 vote only included two Democrats.
Still, Westerman stressed the importance of his bill, which would tighten timelines for National Environmental Policy Act reviews and reduce the potential for litigation. He said a wide spectrum of projects stand to benefit.
“NEPA abuse is strangling critical public and private investments, infrastructure, defense, energy and mining at a moment when we can least afford it,” he said.
Ahead of the markup, the Arkansas Republican heard pleas from several Democrats who demanded the bill include bolder language that would — in effect — force the Trump administration to reverse orders stalling renewable energy projects on land and off the coast.
His updated text released earlier this week, which states NEPA is a “procedural statute” that does not mandate an environmental outcome, seeks to provide “certainty” that a federal agency may not “rescind, withdraw, amend, alter or otherwise render ineffective” any environmental document unless ordered by a court.
In addition, during the markup, the committee did pass one amendment that would prevent an administration from pulling a legitimate permit for a project of any kind — something the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), said has happened “over multiple administrations.”
But that language did little to convince all but one other Democrat — Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.) — that the bill would address the clear, as one put it, “elephant in the room” — that is the Trump administration’s attacks on wind and solar.
“For us, we don’t just want a technology-neutral bill,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), who was in talks with Westerman. “We want a technology neutral outcome.”
Democrats emphasized the administration’s attempts to halt offshore wind projects, add red tape for renewable permits and cancel environmental review for the largest solar project in the country.
“It’s an insane war on the energy of the future and you all want to pretend it’s not happening,” said ranking member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), suggesting Republicans were living in a fantasy.
And while Democrats asserted they were open to amending the 1969 environmental law, Huffman tried to beat down the “false narrative” that NEPA reviews have ballooned into “this monstrous thing.”
In fact, he said President Donald Trump’s White House East Wing construction project was a prime example of the importance of restraint.
“This is what happens when there’s no way to stop a dumb idea move through the NEPA process,” he said, displaying large photos of the site of the largely demolished wing.
He added, “We will help you fix this bill.”
Democrats’ failed amendments
Democrats tried to chip away at the legislation by offering a flurry of amendments that would strike or alter key pieces of the bill. All but Golden and Minnesota Republican Rep. Pete Stauber’s bipartisan permit certainty offering failed.
Huffman offered a total of six amendments, including one that sought to emphasize the importance of the purpose of NEPA. Others would have barred the legislation from taking effect until all clean energy projects and grants were reinstated.
Huffman also wanted to expand the scope of review to include long-term impacts, ensure increased transparency for draft documents and ax a provision limiting the scope of NEPA reviews.
Another Huffman amendment would set the statute of limitations for judicial review of agency decisions to two years; it’s currently six.
“That’s a pretty dramatic reduction,” he said.
While objecting, Stauber quipped that Huffman had “connections” to the Natural Resources Defense Council, prompting outrage from Huffman that derailed the markup for several minutes. They struck a agreement to resolve the dispute after a brief recess.
An amendment from Rep. Luz Rivas (D-Calif.) would have added renewable energy to the list of national policies for the Council on Environmental Quality to “foster and promote.”
Westerman shot back: “Renewable energy is already covered under the ‘SPEED Act,’” arguing the bill treats all forms of energy the same. “This is an amendment in search of a problem,” he said.
And Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) — who was just sworn in to replace her father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who chaired the committee for years — offered an amendment that would embed environmental justice to the list of CEQ’s national policies.
Westerman wants to get the bill on the House floor by the end of the year. That could be a tall order given the shrinking timeline. But GOP leaders signaled their interest.
“Chairman Westerman’s permitting reform bill is a major priority of ours, and we’re going to be moving it on the floor as soon as it’s ready to go,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in an interview after the markup, adding, “Obviously, we’re backed up from the shutdown so we’ve been working through it. … We’re going to keep catching up, but we want to get that bill moving as fast as possible because it’s a really important reform that’s going to create a lot of jobs.”
