Pre-election permitting reform deal stalled in Senate for now
Trending
CHARLESTON - A bipartisan deal being negotiated by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito for a permitting reform package to be passed before the November general election appears to be stalled for the moment.
Speaking to West Virginia reporters Thursday morning in a conference call between floor votes, Capito said she remains optimistic that Republicans and Democrats in the Senate could still come to a final vote on permitting reform next week.
"The Democrats won’t come all the way to the table on the final deal that we struck," said Capito, R-W.Va. "We have a deal. We have a negotiated bill. And so, I would say we are coming back next week most definitely."
According to a news story posted by Politico minutes before Capito's conference call, Democratic senators led by Senate Environmental and Public Works Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., were unable to agree to a vote on a final permitting reform package by the end of this week despite Republicans and the White House agreeing to several concessions.
While the Trump administration offered to ease its blockade on wind projects and move toward returning to regular order for wind and solar projects, the Democratic negotiators sought stronger assurances that the White House would cease its attacks on clean energy infrastructure projects, along with greater clarity on what regular order for solar and wind approvals would look like in practice before committing to a final package.
"I appreciate very much what the Trump administration has done to move in this direction, but in order to brief colleagues on what this really means, we need just a bit more clarity on exactly what return to regular order for wind and solar projects looks like. So that's still to be done, but that I think can happen in fairly short order," Whitehouse told Politico and other congressional reporters Thursday morning.
"We are no longer writing the parameters of a deal," Capito said. "We’ve negotiated. The president has signaled his acceptance of the deal. He has agreed to move forward on 34 wind projects, and he’s agreed to move on in regular order for the other solar and wind projects. "That’s a big give by this president, and we were able to convince him that this is in the best interest because of the value of permitting reform."
Negotiations have gone back and forth over the last several weeks over disagreements on the expansion of interstate power lines, state-level authorities under the Clean Water Act and the streamlining of environmental reviews.
Capito, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, led negotiations for the Republican Senate majority, while Whitehouse and Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., led negotiations for the Democrats.
Permitting reform for infrastructure projects has long been a goal in Congress, with some minor reforms made over the last several years. But a comprehensive permitting reform package has remained elusive.
"I've been going on (about permitting reform) for probably close to a year and the whole topic of permitting reform has been going on for many years," Capito said. "This is something we need to do. This is monumental. This is a big thing. We’re sent here to do big things for our country."
Any potential deal on permitting reform would have to come after the November elections with a lame duck Congress, with a predicted shift in majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives back to Democratic hands and a possible flip of the Senate to Democrats heading into 2027.
In past statements, Capito has said that $2 trillion in infrastructure project investments are frozen because companies are uncertain if they can be completed amidst shifting political winds and regulatory hurdles. The cost and duration of obtaining permits lead many developers to abandon projects entirely, she's said.
Capito and Republican negotiators have pushed for the narrowing of the judicial review process for infrastructure projects, a streamlined Clean Water Act permitting process and reducing the number of federal regulations that tie up proposed projects for years. Past demands have included imposing deadlines for regulatory agencies to issue permits, speeding up environmental reviews of permitting energy projects and simplifying communications between federal agencies issuing permits for the same project.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.