CHARLESTON — Despite claims by the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate that permitting reform for energy projects would be next to impossible to get through Congress, West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators say talks on permitting reform are very much alive.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a new rule this week after a 2-1 vote setting out new requirements for electric transmission lines for utilities. The rule requires companies to complete long-term planning for new transmission lines and other facilities looking out over a 20-year period.
The rule sets requirements of transmission line replacements, as well as gives states more latitude in determining needs, planning, and paying for further projects. It also lays out how costs would be shared between states for transmission line construction and grid planning.
“Our country is facing an unprecedented surge in demand for affordable electricity while confronting extreme weather threats to the reliability of our grid and trying to stay one step ahead of the massive technological changes we are seeing in our society,” said FERC Chairman Willie Phillips in a statement Monday. “Our nation needs a new foundation to get badly needed new transmission planned, paid for and built. With this new rule, that starts today.”
In a press call with reporters Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the new FERC Rule.
“A new historic advancement in our transmission policies has been desperately needed and the rules released by FERC today will go a long way, a very long way to solving that problem,” Schumer said. “Simply put, these new rules will mean more low cost, reliable, clean energy for the places that need it most.”
Schumer said the new FERC rule would eliminate the need for action by Congress. Lawmakers tried to take a crack at permitting reform last year and in 2022, where Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate released competing permitting reform packages, neither of which passed. Schumer blamed Republicans for dragging their feet.
“We tried to do it on the floor. We thought that Republicans who had always been for some kinds of transmission reform would support us, but when it was clear that they would stand in the way, we persisted and found another path through FERC,” Schumer said. “”I always thought in the back of my mind that FERC would be an alternative if we couldn’t get it through the Senate.”
Last year, some permitting reform was included in a debt ceiling deal. That package included language allowing for the completion of the 304-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline transporting natural gas from Wetzel County to pipelines in Virginia and North Carolina. Equitrans Midstream has sought permission from FERC to begin operations at the end of May.
Other permitting reform provisions in the debt ceiling deal include imposing deadlines for regulatory agencies to issue permits, speeding up environmental reviews of permitting energy projects, simplifying communications between federal agencies issuing permits for the same project and streamlining the overall review process.
The new FERC rule includes regulations meant to streamline transmission line construction for renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. It also allows FERC to approve permits in cases where states do not act. Some critics, including FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, believe the new rule favors developers of renewable energy projects
Speaking on her weekly virtual briefing with West Virginia reporters Thursday, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito echoed Christie’s concerns.
“They want it for the renewables, and they don’t want it for anybody else,” said Capito, R-W.Va. “The way they have it structured, to my understanding, is that we could permit a power line in West Virginia … but we wouldn’t necessarily be the benefactor of the energy that is being transmitted or produced. But we would have to pay for the construction of the power line.
“I thoroughly reject that concept,” Capito continued. “I don’t want West Virginians paying so that people in New York City can feel better because they’re being powered by a windmill.”
In an interview Wednesday with Politico’s E and E News, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin – the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee – also pushed back against Schumer’s remarks about permitting reform being a dead issue on Capitol Hill.
“People think (the FERC rule) fixes everything, it really doesn’t,” said Manchin, D-W.Va. “It might start us in the direction, but the bottom line is everybody that we spoke to and everybody we’ve been working with understands you’ve got to have permitting reform.”
Capito, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she is working with EPW Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., ENR Committee Chairman Manchin, and ENR Committee ranking Republican member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on a permitting reform package that can get bipartisan support. Reform would include legal requirements to keep energy projects from getting bogged down in court for years.
“We need judicial reform, so we’re not in this cycle of going to court every six weeks,” Capito said. “There has to be a time limit on it.”
However, with focus turning to the presidential election and congressional elections, Capito said she wasn’t optimistic a permitting reform plan can pass the Senate and the House of Representatives before the end of the year.
“I’m a bit of an optimist about everything, but I’m a bit of a pessimist here, because I just think it’s going to be really difficult to do anything of substance as we move through into the presidential campaign,” Capito said. “But I’m going to keep working on it, because it’s important for not just energy sources. It’s important for broadband, it’s important for any kind of major construction, roads, bridges. All these things are impacted when permitting reform takes five to seven years.”
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