Legislation to fortify the nation’s electric grid and accelerate energy permits cleared a crucial hurdle in the Senate Wednesday, prompting clean and conventional energy lobbyists in the Dirksen building hearing room to erupt with applause.
But the burst of joy might be short-lived: Steep obstacles remain for permitting legislation to become law amid a wildly unpredictable election year.
Even if the bill comes up for a full Senate vote in the coming months, the Republican-led House has seemed lukewarm to the idea of a permitting and transmission package. The White House, while supportive of earlier permitting efforts, has been quiet this time around.
Despite those hurdles, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the compromise bill, S. 4753, crafted by Chair Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) by a 15-4 margin. Manchin and Barrasso called the outcome “tremendous,” “unheard-of” and “encouraging” to reporters after the markup.
“We just did this for a year and a half in the most bipartisan way it can possibly be done,” Manchin said. “And we did it in the most toxic atmosphere. I think it’s pretty surprising to a lot of people we can get this far.”
Barrasso, a fierce partisan who’s running uncontested for GOP leadership, framed the win this way: “What we have here is a really good step in American energy independence” he said, adding that it would be a step in “ending reliance on China.”
The strong committee vote gave hope that the thorny policy matter could succeed sometime later in the year. The package includes a mix of technical and permit boons for transmission lines, renewable energy — including geothermal — as well as oil, gas and coal.
After Manchin successfully swatted down all but one proposed amendment — from Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) that would expedite review for forestry projects — he was upbeat, even if he had few concrete answers for reporters about what happens next.
“Hopefully, we’ll have it done before the end of the year,” said Manchin, who is retiring and wants to make permitting a legacy item.
He could not say whether Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would hold a vote on the Senate floor — it’d need 60 votes in the upper chamber to overcome a filibuster. He was similarly vague about input from the White House, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the bill.
“I’ve talked briefly to them,” Manchin said. “But not intensely because we had to get through this process first. We are the legislative branch. We’ll see what happens, but they’ll engage now.”
White House climate adviser John Podesta endorsed Manchin’s 2023 permitting bill, a rerun of a failed 2022 effort, while offering the caveat that President Joe Biden “frankly doesn’t love everything in the bill. But that’s the spirit of a compromise.”
Green groups fight back
Though Schumer and Biden have both have insisted they want to do permitting reform to cut greenhouse gas emissions and unleash climate gains contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, fierce objection from hundreds of environmental groups could give them pause.
The opposition from greens was noted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Reading from a letter led by Earthjustice, he asserted the legislation would “gut bedrock environmental protections,” open up “tens of millions of acres of public lands and hundreds of millions of acres of offshore waters to further oil and gas leasing” and “would de facto rubberstamp gas export projects that harm frontline communities and perpetuate the climate crisis.”
Backers of renewable energy development, however, mostly split with the major environmental groups. Indeed, renewable energy advocates pointed to provisions that give renewable projects parity with oil and gas projects, excluding certain projects from full-blown environmental reviews.
“This was the earth-moved-today kind of progress,” said the American Clean Power Association’s J.C. Sandberg. “We’ve engaged full-sale.”
But it remains a question if clean energy interests will go far enough to sway presumed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — particularly at a time when her record as a California attorney general and U.S. senator is under careful scrutiny.
The youth-led Sunrise Movement recently called on the vice president to differentiate herself from Biden on oil and gas approvals and other matters.
Even if the bill passes the Senate, it would run into a big question mark in the Republican-led House, which just scrapped a week of work in Washington to go into full reelection mode.
Moreover, many House Republicans have been skeptical about transmission legislation out of concern for states’ rights and energy costs for their constituents. Manchin said he and Barrasso would approach them as a bipartisan duo.
“They can do the same thing over there,” he said.
While nothing is certain, if Republicans lose the House in November, there’s a possibility they could be open to take what they can get in a Manchin-Barrasso package.
But if they keep the House they might want to make even deeper changes to environmental laws, including easing state water permits for pipelines.
Democrats could also have incentive to act if they fear big losses in November. If Republicans control the White House or either chamber of Congress, the GOP might not be keen on building out the grid as fast as Democrats contend is necessary to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Manchin and Barrasso could try to attach the legislation to another must-pass bill, with the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act a prime target.
Beating back amendments
Manchin has tried and failed to advance permitting legislation multiple times. This could be his last attempt to mold his legacy and accelerate energy projects, address extreme weather, and ensure new power lines are affordable and reliable.
And although a majority of the committee supported the bill, they have plenty of ideas about how to change it. Manchin promised to incorporate some of those ideas before the bill advances.
Several amendments went down to defeat:
- Sanders proposed to strike a provision in the bill that would overturn a Biden administration pause on natural gas export approvals. It failed 6-13.
- Daines wanted to require oil and gas lease sales in Montana and other energy producing states as well as offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaskan coast. He berated the Biden administration for doing “all they can” to limit oil lease sales. It failed 9-10.
- Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) teamed up with Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on two amendments that would prohibit oil and gas leasing in the outer continental shelf off New England and the West Coast. Both failed 9-10. Sanders, Wyden and Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono all opposed the full bill out of concerns it catered too much to fossil fuel interests. Wyden specifically chafed at a provision that would allow the industry rather than the Interior Department to decide where companies can drill for oil. Overall, he called his opposition “reluctant,” while allowing, “I certainly agree with much in this bill.”
- Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the lone Republican who voted against the bill, wanted to amend the process to construct or modify transmission facilities. It’s an issue he’s been vocal about as he has argued that farmers are having their land trampled by corporations trying to build power lines. It failed 8-11.
And Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — the former ENR chair — had several amendments intended to strengthen hydropower but agreed to withdraw some of them after Manchin promised to try to work the provisions into the base text, assuming it falls in his committee’s jurisdiction.
When she acquiesced, Manchin breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much,” he said to chuckles in the room.
