CONTRIBUTOR
President Joe Biden’s landmark climate bill is being held back by a lack of comprehensive permitting reform, the absence of which enables environmentalist lawsuits that impede green energy projects subsidized by the legislation.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contained hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize green energy projects nationwide, but the bill did not include significant reform to the permitting process that would expedite construction timelines and insulate developments from environmental legal challenges. Unless Congressional Democrats can negotiate a permitting reform package with Republicans in an election year, these problems will continue to dog the IRA’s implementation, energy policy experts and stakeholders told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
After solar and wind developments have been built, they need to be connected to the grid via transmission lines to feed power into the grid. Permitting reform would speed up the lengthy paperwork process for that transmission, as well as provide developers an additional layer of protection against environmental lawsuits that also disrupt the construction of green energy developments (RELATED: Blue States Are Stripping Rural Counties Of Ability To Prevent Green Energy Takeover Of Their Communities)
“I think that not having any transmission reform is a huge barrier to implementing the IRA,” Isaac Orr, a policy analyst for the Center for the American Experiment who specializes in energy policy, told the DCNF. “I think there was an understanding that permitting reform was necessary in order to implement a lot of the things Democrats wanted as soon as they got the IRA … It’s a physical reality that you need the transmission in order to incorporate all this new capacity on the grid.”
The lack of reform has left numerous green energy developments open to legal challenges filed by environmental groups, who often will pursue similar legal strategies adopted by opponents of fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the past.
For example, a coalition of tribes and environmental organizations are suing to block a massive $10 billion transmission project in Arizona, while different coalitions have taken to court to allege violations of environmental laws on the part of offshore wind developers building wind farms in waters off the coasts of Virginia and Massachusetts. Elsewhere in the country, conservation groups have continued the yearslong fight against Wisconsin’s Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line by suing the government to stop construction.
“Reforms aimed at streamlining the federal government’s permit decision-making process and discouraging frivolous litigation have the potential not only to improve regulatory efficiency but also to bring about greater certainty and predictability in the offshore wind sector,” Erik Milito, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) told the DCNF. “Litigation, particularly around alleged National Environmental Policy Act deficiencies, has been a significant hindrance for offshore wind projects. A robust U.S. offshore wind market relies on confidence and certainty in the permitting and regulatory process, which is essential for fostering growth and ensuring the success of these projects, much like any other major infrastructure endeavor.”
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a leading advocate for comprehensive permitting reform, has tried to advance legislation to expedite the permitting process and minimize opportunities for litigation to gum up timelines for all kinds of energy projects.
In total, there are no fewer than ten different permitting-related bills in Congress and two major regulatory initiatives underway on the federal level, but progress on streamlining the permitting process is still very sluggish, according to Utility Dive.
“All of these things, the Clean Water Act, the way the National Environmental Policy Act is now run … you can’t get anything built because of these statutes,” Mike McKenna, a Republican strategist with extensive experience in and around the energy sector, told the DCNF about Congressional gridlock on permitting reform.
“So we are about a year into you’re what I think is going to be a seven- or eight-year process, where everyone on the Left starts figuring out, ‘Oh, my goodness, these guys were right, You can’t build any of this stuff.”
Neither the White House nor the Department of Energy responded to requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Good news.
The existential Climate Crisis™ will be over in 7 or 8 years.
Can’t wait. In the meantime, we should transition some of these people.
The issue is that the power of the Green NGOs derives from exploiting the permitting process, so they will oppose any attempt to reform it.
They don’t really want anything built, be it “green” or otherwise. They want humanity gone from the face of the Earth, but refuse to lead by example. Cowards.
They all support the BANANA rule.
Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone
Of course, that rule is only applied after THEY have all of their nice stuff!
Correct – like the way the greens want to stop all forestry- while they live in nice wood homes with nice wood furniture and tons of paper products.
I know one who is a retired piano teacher who owns several old pianos made from tropical hardwoods!
What’s the difference between and environmentalist and a developer?
The environmentalist already has a house in the woods.
But note the link in the article (RELATED: Blue States Are Stripping Rural Counties Of Ability To Prevent Green Energy Takeover Of Their Communities).
The parasite class means to make it just as impossible for the host society to stop what they want to do as it is for it to do what the parasites want to stop.
The only embarrassing thing with the climate changers is they’re never really embarrassed-
‘Embarrassing’: Caleb Bond on ABC fact-checking of Dick Smith energy comments (msn.com)
Same in Oz with the numpties making a Green rod for their own backs and welcome to their transition fantasy timelines mirroring their tipping points meme. Lefties simply can’t do tradeoffs with their absolutist pea brains.
Same thing in the UK. They have finally noticed that the wind farms are offshore (often off the north coast of Scotland). And demand is in the South East and Midlands. So they are now building massive amounts of transmission at great expense.
They have also noticed something else. Even when you get the power to where demand is, its intermittent and unpredictable. Who would have thought it? So now they are building out gas generation to make the supply reliable and usable.
By doing it in stages like this, no-one ever costed what the real cost is of getting the wind generated power in usable, ie dispatchable, form to where its needed.
If they had done that, they must have found that just building the gas generation plant near to demand was far and away cheaper. And more reliable.
Michel, One thing we have established over these many years of Green energy evolution, is they have no concerns about cost.
The fact they have no concern about energy security or even energy reliability is also well established.
Their prime objective is to stop economic activity, stop consumption and some would argue they wish to see the demise of mankind.
Logic and economics play no part in the Green poison infused mind.
A Duke Power Company analysis showed that ramping NG power plants up and down to accommodate the variability of power production by ‘renewables’ produced more CO2 emissions than just producing all of the power by NG. They aren’t even achieving their own goals.
“…discouraging frivolous litigation…”
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
Chuckle. They are their own worst enemy. No one needs to make fun of them. They are a self-writing joke machine.
Renewables will destroy America’s lifestyle back to the pre-1800’s – this is the Biden energy plan.
The elephant in the room that policymakers refuse to talk about is that renewables only generate electricity but cannot manufacture any products for today’s materialistic society.
Politicians and environmentalists NEVER discuss the need to maintain the supply chain of the PRODUCTS and FUELS, now based on crude oil, that are essential to human flourishing.
https://www.americaoutloud.news/renewables-will-destroy-americas-lifestyle-back-to-the-pre-1800s-this-is-the-biden-energy-plan/