Permitting Reform Remains a Long Shot, GOP Committee Chair Says

Obtaining a long-sought deal to speed up US federal permitting for energy and other infrastructure projects is looking increasingly unlikely in the remaining Congressional session, House Natural Resources chair Bruce Westerman says in interview.

• “It’s still a long-shot,” says Westerman, who is one of the House’s primary Republican negotiators on a permitting reform deal
• House and Senate negotiators from both parties have been meeting to obtain a year-end deal that could set deadlines for federal agency’s to issue permit approvals, mandate more oil, gas and wind leasing and tweak the more than 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act
• Westerman said tweaks ...