The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 is a Step in the Right Direction
Tue, August 13, 2024
In July, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY) released a long-awaited bill that aims to expedite the development of domestic energy projects by streamlining the federal government’s energy infrastructure permitting process. Overregulation is consistently cited as an obstacle that has stalled energy projects across the country. Electricity demand will increase rapidly in the coming years, particularly in Texas, and provisions in the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 (EPRA) will help streamline processes for natural gas producers to meet that demand and provide reliable, affordable energy for years to come.
In the U.S., gaining permits to build energy infrastructure and connecting it to the electric grid is harder today than at any point in recent memory. Projects built between 2018 and 2022 face an average wait time of four years before they can connect to the grid, up from less than two years for projects built between 2000 and 2007. Unclear and overlapping mandates, poor coordination among federal agencies, and unnecessarily long timelines are just some of the many hurdles energy projects face in development.
One of the most consequential proposals in the EPRA is reducing the statute of limitations under which parties can file lawsuits against agency actions. Currently, parties have six years following project approval to file suit against it, a practice that can cause decade-long delays. This bill reduces that deadline to 150 days.
The EPRA also requires expedited action from all parties involved in the project approval process, from agencies to the courtroom:
- Courts are required to prioritize the review of permitting decisions on energy and mineral projects.
- Agencies, for their part, are required to act within 180 days when a court either returns a permit for further review or vacates it entirely.
- On LNG specifically, the bill requires the Secretary of Energy to approve or deny LNG export applications within 90 days of the final environmental review being published. If the Secretary fails to take action within the 90 days, the application will be automatically approved.
The last point is particularly notable due to the Biden administration’s pause on LNG export applications earlier this year. Though a federal court struck down the pause last month, litigation is ongoing and this bill seeks to do away with the pause entirely.
The EPRA streamlines several other permitting processes as well, including simplifying the oversight authority over interregional transmission projects, requiring offshore oil and gas drilling lease sales to be held annually through 2029 instead of once every two years, and removing a requirement for projects to obtain both state and federal drilling permits in specific instances.
Natural gas producers in Texas and across the country continue to prove their commitment to providing reliable and affordable energy with record-setting production. But as with great production comes great responsibility; particularly, the responsibility to provide adequate transportation to keep the energy flowing. As pipelines in the Permian Basin reach capacity, future production is threatened. The approval process for building additional pipelines can be convoluted, but the introduction of the EPRA is a promising step toward simplifying that process and ensuring that we can continue to meet our state’s growing energy demand.