Climate change activists (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Hundreds of the most prominent U.S. environmental organizations are waging war on bipartisan permitting legislation moving through the Senate, despite the bill's provisions fast-tracking green energy development.

The Energy Permitting Reform Act—introduced last week by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leaders Joe Manchin (I., W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R., Wyo.)—is the product of months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans and includes policy wins for each side. For example, the legislation would expand mining and oil and gas leasing while also streamlining the permit process for electric transmission projects, which are vital for connecting green energy sources to the grid.

Largely as a result of those transmission provisions, the legislation has been endorsed by industry associations representing green energy developers, such as the American Clean Power Association and American Council on Renewable Energy, groups that have historically supported more left-leaning energy and climate bills. And the bill passed through committee Wednesday afternoon in a 15-4 vote, with most Democrats supporting it.

But the environmental lobby—led by the influential Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and League of Conservation Voters—has characterized the Manchin-Barrasso bill as a handout to the fossil fuel industry and called for legislation that instead includes no wins for traditional energy production. Environment America likened the bill to a doctor "giving you a gym pass but mandating you smoke two packs of cigarettes before using it."

Environmentalists' vociferous opposition to the legislation underscores the tension between their aggressive climate agenda and the legislative actions that may be required to achieve that agenda. It also establishes a clear dividing line between those environmental groups and green energy groups as lawmakers pursue permitting reform.

"This legislation guts bedrock environmental protections, endangers public health, opens up tens of millions of acres of public lands and hundreds of millions of acres of offshore waters to further oil and gas leasing, gives public lands to mining companies, and would defacto [sic] rubberstamp gas export projects that harm frontline communities and perpetuate the climate crisis," a coalition of 360 green groups wrote to lawmakers ahead of the committee vote on Wednesday.

"While the bill includes provisions that may possibly accelerate the deployment of the critical clean energy and the transmission infrastructure we have been championing, they should not be paired with massive giveaways to the fossil fuel and mining industry," the groups added in the letter, which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Overall, the 75-page Energy Permitting Reform Act would ensure regular and substantial federal acreage is opened up for fossil fuel drilling, set deadlines for coal leasing, and increase offshore oil leasing, while also doubling renewable energy permitting targets, modernizing geothermal leasing, streamlining environmental reviews for green energy projects, and accelerating transmission projects.

The bill would also reverse the Biden-Harris administration's permitting pause on proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal projects, an issue that has triggered backlash from lawmakers, industry groups, and European allies dependent on U.S.-produced gas.

"Especially around transmission and a few other things, it really is a good bill, and one that we should try and pass," said Chris Barnard, the president of the American Conservation Coalition, a right-leaning group that has advocated for the bill. "I think it's a great marker and something that we can build off."

Barnard noted that the vast majority of energy development projects delayed by red tape are green energy projects, not fossil fuel projects. And he added that, without reform to current permitting laws making transmission build-out easier, the vast majority of projected emissions reductions from Democrats' behemoth Inflation Reduction Act would go to waste.

"A lot of these climate and environmental groups have basically become special interest groups. They reflect narrow interests, rather than what's good and true on these issues, and they've become reflexive NIMBYs that oppose anything really," Barnard continued. "And it's not just fossil fuels. There's examples of them opposing clean energy, whether it's wind and solar or nuclear or geothermal or hydro—they basically oppose everything. They don't want us to build anything."

"I think the biggest issue in this permitting reform conversation is that a lot of Democratic legislators are afraid of basically pissing off their left flank and the big green NGOs and all these environmental grassroots groups," he said. "At the end of the day, they're going to have to figure that out, because you're never going to get the policies that you need to truly tackle these climate issues and bring more clean energy on the grid if you don't have a bipartisan package that comprehensively tackles this."

According to a 2020 federal study, the government takes about five years on average to review and sign off on projects, with many Department of Transportation projects taking about seven years to complete. The project delays—which can be blamed on strict environmental regulations and redundant permitting requirements—have come into focus as the support has grown for more green energy development to support a nationwide transition from fossil fuel reliance.

The Biden-Harris administration has vowed to ensure the entire U.S. grid is carbon-free by 2035, a timeline that is in doubt because of the growing backlog of projects under environmental review. A staggering 2,600 gigawatts of new power generation has been delayed from coming online across the country because of delays building transmission lines connecting them to the grid, a recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study concluded.

As a result, lawmakers have crafted nearly a dozen different bills in recent years in an effort to reform federal permitting processes and shorten the time it takes between a project being proposed and being completed. All of those efforts have fallen short.

"A lot of the the environmental left, particularly the green lobby, cares more about sticking it to Big Oil than it does about actually driving global decarbonization," Thomas Hochman, a policy manager at the Foundation for American Innovation, said in an interview.

"They see a bill that, on net, is almost certain to drive emissions reductions across the planet, but they also see there being provisions that will support the domestic oil and gas industry," he added. "To them, it's just too much to bear to support the oil and gas industry, even if that's a necessary evil for driving down global emissions. It's extremely unfortunate and frustrating."

It remains unclear whether the Energy Permitting Reform Act will receive a floor vote in the coming weeks. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) office didn't respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, House Natural Resources Committee chairman Bruce Westerman (R., Ark.) and Rep. Scott Peters (D., Calif.) are negotiating a House version of the legislation.

Source link