With a GOP trifecta assuming power in January, House Speaker Johnson said the permit reform can wait while lawmakers focus on adopting a stopgap funding bill.
A bipartisan permitting reform measure spearheaded by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) as a capstone to his career as a moderate Senate dealmaker will not advance in the House before the lame-duck congress adjourns for the year.
The proposed Energy Permitting Reform Act streamlines the permitting process for energy projects, sets a 150-day deadline for seeking judicial review of agency actions, guarantees at least one offshore oil and gas lease sale per year in the Gulf of Mexico from 2025 to 2029, forces the energy secretary to make decisions on LNG export applications within 90 days of environmental reviews being completed, and creates numerous exemptions.
“Meaningful permitting reform will continue to be subject to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold next year and cannot be done by executive action alone,” he said.
The permit reform bill drew criticism from some Democrats for curtailing public comments and litigative timelines, and from many Republicans for allegedly failing to address electric grid reliability, trim 2022 Inflation Reduction Act subsidies for renewables, and substantially revise the National Environmental Policy Act.
With a GOP trifecta assuming power in January, Johnson told reporters on Dec. 16 that permit reform can wait while lawmakers focus on adopting a continuing resolution to fund federal government operations through March 2025.
The House speaker said the compromise permitting reform bill was never likely to be heard in the House, which has already set forth a permitting and National Environmental Policy Act reform program within HR 1, the massive energy policy omnibus adopted by the chamber in 2023 but never heard in the Senate.
Senate Democrats over the past two years have failed to “achieve meaningful permitting reform,” he said, expressing confidence that with Republicans set to control both chambers and the White House, a better reform package will be adopted.
“We will keep working to knock down barriers to producing and delivering that energy. Our work on permitting reform is not done,” he said.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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