Today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 by a 15-4 vote, just a little more than a week after the legislation was introduced.
“We did this for a year and a half in the most bipartisan way it can possibly be done, and we did it in the most toxic atmosphere,” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) told reporters after the vote. “You put all that together and get this accomplished right now, in the vote we came out with, and considering everyone’s concerns they had, I think it’s pretty surprising to a lot of people we can get this far.” Manchin noted that members have never had this type of support on a permitting deal.
The next step for the legislation would be a full chamber vote, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has previously dismissed the idea of getting a deal done. In May, he told reporters getting permitting reform done would be “virtually impossible,” and said he’d told Manchin as much. Schumer believes GOP opposition to the bill will be too staunch to overcome, as Republicans have vocalized concerns over transmission reforms in the bill.
The Energy Permitting Reform Act, proposed by Senators Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY), will require interregional transmission planning and reform how states settle disputes over interstate projects. While the bill will also provide streamlined permitting for some oil and gas projects, climate hawks appeared to believe the transmission benefits in the proposal outweighed the fossil fuel trade-offs.
“As extreme weather and rising energy demand stretches our nation’s energy grid to its limits, today’s permitting reform package rises to the occasion with policy changes that will help bolster grid reliability and our nation’s economic competitiveness by paving a path for the timely deployment of transmission infrastructure,” said Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, a transmission policy group.
The permitting bill would codify some aspects of the “watershed” transmission planning and permitting rules issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in May but aims to go further by tackling interregional transmission planning and enhancing the federal government’s backstop permitting authority.
The proposal calls for FERC to issue a rule on interregional transmission planning and cost allocation within 180 days of the bill’s passage. Interregional transmission plans would need to consider advanced conductors and reconductoring in addition to new transmission buildout. If approved, transmission planners would have to submit their first interregional plans within two years of the passage of the bill and once every four years thereafter. The Energy Secretary would be required to identify transmission capacity constraints every three years by consulting with affected transmission planning regions.
The bill would remove the Energy Secretary’s authority over designating national interest transmission corridors, allowing FERC to issue construction permits for transmission projects “in the national interest” that meet legal requirements, improve reliability, and meet a minimum voltage threshold. Those projects would not be limited to the 10 preliminary national interest corridors identified by the Department of Energy. Utilities that receive a construction permit for a project in the national interest would have to file a tariff for approval with FERC for cost allocation.
“We’re pleased to see bipartisan recognition that we must quickly and efficiently build out transmission capacity to keep pace with America’s growing electricity demand,” Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the solar and battery storage trade group SEIA, said in a statement. “For years, SEIA has been calling for a fundamental shift in the way we build transmission capacity and has long advocated for reforms that fairly allocate costs. While we’re still reviewing the details, this is a conversation worth having.”
After decades of stagnation, transmission planning and permitting reform is being recognized for its critical role in the energy transition due to the onslaught of distributed clean energy resources and unprecedented load growth.
According to the consultancy Grid Strategies, U.S. peak demand growth could grow by more than 38 GW through 2028, driven by electrification, along with the development of data centers and industrial and manufacturing facilities. The nationwide demand forecast jumped from a rate of 2.6% to 4.7% growth over the next five years, according to FERC filings.
The U.S. installed 1,700 miles of new high-voltage transmission miles per year on average in the first half of the 2010s but that dropped to only 645 miles per year, on average, in the decade’s second half. Low transfer capability between regions is a key risk for reliability if load growth outpaces the deployment of new generation in some regions, the report added.
