Top lawmakers working on permitting reform in Congress expressed optimism Wednesday about some form of legislation getting across the finish line this year, but a White House official was cool to key Democratic asks as part of the process.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee, are looking to clinch a deal this summer with other top lawmakers.
But during the POLITICO Energy Summit in Washington, Capito and Whitehouse discussed the challenge of negotiating as President Donald Trump continues to express deep hostility to renewable energy projects and his administration slow-walks approvals.
“It becomes very challenging for me to take even a very good bill to my caucus and say, ‘We should trust this administration for two-some more years with this good bill, and that they will faithfully execute it,’” Whitehouse said.
“A significant number of projects need to move in order for us to feel comfortable that the environment or administration of permitting reform will be so false and toxic,” he said. “That’s going to have to happen, and I think everybody understands that.”
Capito acknowledged that the Trump administration is not being as helpful as it could be on permitting reform, including when the Interior Department tried to stop construction of several offshore wind projects.
The administration’s decision not to appeal adverse rulings on those projects and to move permitting forward on some solar projects on public land are “a good signal,” said Capito. “We’re working with the administration to make sure [Trump] understands this is a legacy issue for this president.”
Capito said the Biden administration’s actions against fossil fuels — like canceling the Keystone XL pipeline — along with Trump’s moves against clean energy are causing numerous industries and their allies to come together on permitting reform.
“It’s a shared pain, and I think that’s what’s driving us, I think, together,” she said.
Capito and her colleagues have been working to convince the president to “tamp down” his anti-clean-energy moves to help permitting reform move forward, she said.
“If you keep pushing off certain projects and put your foot on the scale, Mr. President, for certain projects, we’re going to lose our golden opportunity,” Capito said, paraphrasing her messaging to the White House.
Administration officials have said they’re engaged in the negotiations and want to see a deal. At the same time, Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council, didn’t appear conciliatory toward Democrats on Wednesday.
“We’re not going to give bad projects at the cost of good projects,” Agen said at the summit.
Agen put the onus on Democrats to lift their opposition to natural gas pipeline projects, pointing to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blocking the contentious Constitution pipeline venture.
“If Democrats actually want to get projects done and lower energy prices for their residents, they should get a deal done,” Agen said. “Those are the ones blocking the permitting, because they’re not using common sense.”
House, transmission
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, also expressed a strong desire for permitting reform. He said he met Tuesday with key Democrats and that staff of both parties are working on the issue.
But Guthrie emphasized that the House has its own priorities and would not accept policies like taking power from states and local officials on transmission. The grid is a major component of the talks, with Democrats in particular wanting more power lines to carry clean energy from rural areas to population centers.
“The idea that you’re just going to have a federal transmission board at [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] that could sit down and say where transmission lines are going to go? We think that’s just too much,” Guthrie said. “Even if it worked, it would bog everything down. And we still think that the local utilities have to have the ability to make decisions.”
The House last year passed House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman’s (R-Ark.) “SPEED Act” to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act process. Guthrie recently held a hearing on grid reforms and has talked of bipartisan compromise.
Guthrie on Wednesday also criticized wind and solar energy, saying it’s not reliable in winter storms. “It doesn’t work when you want it to work,” said the chair, repeating a frequent GOP talking point.
Still, he acknowledged permitting reform would have to include policies for those energy sources. “We need to have certainty,” Guthrie said.
“I fully understand that if for us to have a broad bipartisan comprehensive bill, then we have to look at everything from where the energy sources move to the generation and how it moves to the people who are using it.”
James Bikales contributed to this report.
