The bipartisan bill could cut years off energy development — but a sponsor warns that the Trump administration’s latest wind attacks could blow up negotiations.
Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia introduced the permitting bill alongside Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
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It’s been years in the making, but the U.S. Senate finally has a bipartisan permitting bill on the table that could speed up the construction of much-needed energy and grid projects. That is, if the Trump administration’s latest round of offshore wind attacks doesn’t tank the whole thing.
Three weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators released a bill that could dramatically speed up energy construction timelines. According to a new interactive tool from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, it takes nearly 18 years for a transmission project that faces delays and permit challenges to come into service. This legislation could shave as much as eight years off that timeline, in large part because it would allow federal regulators to grant permits when states don’t do so quickly enough.
Solar, wind, and geothermal projects would also get a faster track to completion under the bill — but so would gas pipelines, according to Columbia’s analysis. Pipelines’ speedier processing is one of many reasons some tribal and environmental groups are calling for revisions to the legislation.
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