Manchin’s Permitting Deal Draws Skepticism From GOP Counterpart

A leading Republican advocate for slashing through US permitting delays says she’s skeptical a bipartisan deal can be reached on legislation led by Democrat Joe Manchin to speed reviews of big energy and other infrastructure projects.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R) said in an interview that Manchin, who was promised action on a permitting plan to gain his crucial vote on the historic climate package, has yet to share any drafts with her, his West Virginia colleague. The climate package passed with only Democratic support in the Senate and since has been signed into law.

Senators are now in August recess and won’t return until after Labor Day, with little time to reach a deal on legislation to keep the government open after Sept. 30. An agreement between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calls for moving legislation to overhaul permitting requirements by that date, making the funding extension the logical vehicle to move the changes through Congress.

But passage will require Democrats to secure agreement from Republicans in the Senate who want to overhaul permitting and progressive Democrats in the House wary of expediting permits for energy projects at the expense of environmental concerns.

“I know certain people have said, `well, it’s going to get pushed to a continuing resolution and that’s a must-pass’ and that’s how we’re going to get” permitting changes through the Senate, said Capito, the environment panel’s top Republican and next chairman if Republicans win control of the chamber in November.

Capito, like other Republicans, “wasn’t in the room when this deal was done, so I don’t know what kind of deal was made” including how far any permitting legislation could go, she said.

Permitting Plans

Manchin is backing changes to speed up energy permitting, particularly for projects designated of “strategic national importance,” and set hard deadlines for certain permitting reviews: two years generally for environmental impact reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act and one year for those with lower impacts, according to a one-page framework circulated earlier this month. Manchin also wants to remove regulatory hurdles for West Virginia’s Mountain Valley Pipeline, a long-delayed 300-plus-mile natural gas project.

The framework calls for a more restrictive statute of limitations that would make it harder for environmental groups and disadvantaged communities to file suit over projects and force federal agencies to respond quickly if a federal court rules against a project.

A Manchin spokesperson called the draft outdated and not necessarily a roadmap for the legislation, but declined to comment on the status of any proposals.

Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the top energy panel Republican, thinks the Manchin-Schumer permitting agreement won’t amount to much, based on the framework circulated weeks ago and what he said is consistent Biden administration resistance to doing anything to speed up permitting approval. “This narrow proposal does not go far enough. It will not prevent the Biden administration from continuing its war on American energy,” he said.

“No one should take the Biden administration seriously on permitting reform. They’ve done everything to make the permitting process more costly and difficult,” Barrasso said, and President Joe Biden already “has the the authority to enact many of the proposed permitting reforms now.”

‘Minimal’ Negotiations?

There has been minimal conversations between senators on areas of compromises, Capito said, since “we’re all out on recess” with senators not returning to the Capitol until September.

“We haven’t really tackled this one-on-one” in the Senate, Capito said.

There have been signals that many Democrats in the House don’t feel bound by the deal struck by Manchin and Schumer. Their agreement noted both Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had agreed “to pass comprehensive permitting reform legislation before the end of this fiscal year,” Sept. 30.

“I don’t know what kind of promises or how many votes the Speaker can deliver or not deliver” in the House, Capito said. “I think there’s a lot of skepticism” among Democrats who don’t feel bound by Schumer’s deal with Manchin, she said, “and I certainly have read that from individual members” in recent weeks.

“What are the guarantees this is going to happen? And what form does it really take?” she said.

Democrats unanimously opposed Capito’s floor amendment to significantly scale back permitting requirements during Senate floor debate over the climate change and tax package, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169).

All 50 Democrats voted against her amendment to set a two-year limit on most environmental reviews, consolidate reviews under a “one federal decision” provision and remove regulatory hurdles, all ideas pushed by the Trump administration.

Capito said that suggests Democrats won’t in the end embrace any significant revamping of permitting requirements. But her amendment also would have significantly curtailed EPA’s authority over navigable streams and their tributaries under its waters of the US rulemaking, and limited Biden’s use of social cost of carbon measurement to account for broad climate impacts in federal regulations and permitting.

Wary House Democrats

Some high-profile Democrats have already vowed to fight any permitting changes that would limit the ability to file suit over environmental assessments, arguing it’s one of the few avenues disadvantaged populations including communities of color have to battle against projects with significant effects on them. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) “is very much still opposed to the potential legislation,” a Grijalva spokeswoman said.

Grijalva warned weeks ago that he’d oppose any legislation that would “restrict public access to the courts” to challenge harmful projects including placing “arbitrary limits on the amount of time the public has to comment on polluting projects.”

In a recent op-ed, the chairman wrote that projects that emit “toxic air pollutants or leak carcinogens into drinking water are almost always sited in poor communities and communities of color.” Weakening permitting requirements would erase gains the Biden administration has made toward finally giving those communities more voice in federal decisions, he wrote in the Aug. 17 Newsweek op-ed.

Other House Democrats considered leading voices in combating environmental inequity also have raised concerns, including Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who along with Grijalva co-authored sweeping environmental justice legislation that cleared the Natural Resources Committee in July.

“I continue to have deep concerns around any proposed permitting reforms,” McEachin said in a statement applauding passage of the climate measure but warning against significant changes to permitting requirements.