| Work Detail |
The bipartisan legislation is designed to expedite permitting by establishing deadlines and doubling production targets for renewable energy permitting on federal lands, without compromising environmental review or community needs.
The U.S. Senate has voted in favor of a proposal by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to advance the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, a bipartisan piece of legislation aimed at improving permitting for energy infrastructure projects.
The solar permitting process has been considered one of the biggest hurdles to deploying solar projects in the U.S. The process can be complicated by complex regulations and a reliance on manual data entry methods.
The Permit Reform Act, authored by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is designed to shorten permit timelines: a 150-day statute of limitations from the date of final agency action on a project; requiring courts to expedite review of legal challenges; and establishing a 180-day deadline for federal agencies to act on returned permits.
Manchin called the bill “bipartisan, commonsense legislation that will speed up permitting and provide more certainty for all types of energy and mining projects while not overlooking important protections for our environment and affected communities.”
The bill sets deadlines and doubles production targets for renewable energy permitting on federal lands, and streamlines environmental reviews for renewable, grid and low-disturbance storage projects. It also makes several changes to speed up permitting processes for fossil fuel projects.
Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, applauded the Senates passage of the bill:
Today, we are one step closer to overcoming systemic barriers to the solar and storage industry and unleashing America’s clean energy sector. Voices on all sides of this issue agree that we need to reform the permitting process so we can quickly build transmission capacity and deliver abundant, low-cost renewable energy to the homes and businesses that need it. There are many positive elements in this bill, including a fair allocation of transmission costs and provisions to simplify clean energy development on public lands. |
