Washington D.C. – A bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate is advancing significant federal permitting reform aimed at accelerating energy projects across the nation, including a target to produce 60 GW of renewable energy on federal lands by 2030. This legislative push, exemplified by the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 (S.4753), seeks to streamline the lengthy and often litigious approval processes that have historically delayed critical infrastructure. Legal scholar Chris Elmendorf recently highlighted the broad implications of such reforms, tweeting, > "Bipartisan federal permitting reform may require the kind of tools that states have used to curtail local gov't discretion over housing."
The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, introduced by Senators Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY), passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with a strong 15-4 bipartisan vote in July 2024. The bill aims to reduce barriers to energy deployment and mining activities, addressing issues like extended judicial review periods and duplicative permitting requirements. It includes provisions to accelerate leasing and permitting decisions for all types of energy projects, encompassing oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and offshore wind development.
Elmendorf's analogy to state-level housing reforms underscores a potential shift in federal authority. States like California and Oregon have enacted "preemption" laws to override local government control over zoning and land use, aiming to increase housing supply and affordability by limiting local discretion. A similar federal approach to energy permitting could centralize more power, potentially reducing local bottlenecks for large-scale energy projects.
The legislation is designed to benefit a wide array of energy sectors, reflecting a compromise between Republican priorities for fossil fuel production and Democratic goals for clean energy expansion. As Elmendorf noted, such a framework could lead to a scenario where "Congress would use same tools to make R presidents permit renewables, and D presidents permit fossil fuels," suggesting a more balanced and politically resilient permitting system regardless of the administration in power. This bipartisan strategy seeks to ensure American energy security and reduce costs by providing greater certainty for developers.
Current federal permitting processes are notorious for their inefficiency, with some transmission line projects facing approval times of 10 to 20 years. The Energy Permitting Reform Act introduces measures like a 150-day statute of limitation for judicial review and streamlined environmental assessments for low-disturbance projects. Supporters argue these reforms are crucial to meet growing electricity demand, bolster domestic energy production, and achieve climate goals by accelerating the deployment of both traditional and renewable energy sources.