The American Public Power Association supports efforts in Congress to streamline the federal permitting and siting process, eliminate excessive regulatory barriers, and ensure more predictable and timely decisions from relevant federal agencies, it said in a Statement for the Record submitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“These reforms are urgently needed to meet the growing demand for electricity, and to ensure reliability as more intermittent resources are added to the grid,” APPA said.
The Statement for the Record was submitted for a May 11 hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to examine opportunities for Congress to reform the permitting process for energy and mineral projects.
APPA noted that it has long sought clarity and certainty from environmental review and permitting regulations and laws. “Despite an abundance of resources and potential projects to meet the rapidly growing demand for electricity, permitting red tape, needlessly burdensome regulations, and conflicts between state and federal priorities have slowed energy infrastructure development to a crawl.”
APPA believes common-sense reforms to the federal permitting process are not an “either or” proposition, “but instead that they can be done in a way that protects the environment while ensuring energy infrastructure can be built in a timely manner, allowing public power utilities to continue providing affordable, reliable power to their customers.”
Broadly, Congress should provide sustained funding and support training to ensure agencies have sufficient resources to accelerate coordinated reviews and permits, APPA said.
“Congress should also create a secure interagency information sharing portal to allow for ease of file sharing, coordination, and notification to all agencies simultaneously when new documents are uploaded.”
Electric Transmission
APPA said it supports prudent investment in the nation’s electric transmission infrastructure. However, it is concerned by proposals that would significantly expand Department of Energy or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority over the siting or permitting of individual transmission facilities, which are primarily within the jurisdiction of state and local governments.
“APPA prefers that permitting reform not include cost allocation principles or measures, particularly any that could lead to unreasonable increases in transmission costs for public power utilities and their customers, many of which have already seen significant increases in transmission costs in recent years.”
Instead, APPA believes that Congress should recognize that current proposals on permitting reform, “including necessary changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, reasonable deadlines for federal agencies, and proposals that will provide industry with more clarity and certainty will also make it easier to permit electric transmission projects.”
Further, Congress must allow appropriate time for expanded authorities, including backstop siting authority under section 216 of the Federal Power Act, and transmission-specific funding, totaling over $5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, to be fully implemented before considering fundamental changes to transmission cost allocation and siting, the trade group said.
Congress should also recognize that FERC has active notices of proposed rulemaking on transmission planning and cost allocation and backstop siting authority, APPA said.
“Congress should consider requiring DOE to prioritize transmission projects that include joint ownership opportunities for public power and other load-serving entities when selecting new transmission projects for federal funding and support. Doing so can promote more collaborative and effective planning processes, reduce project costs and simplify cost allocation, and help bolster local support for transmission projects.”
National Environmental Policy Act
Congress should also support environmental reviews that harmonize processes across the federal government and promote one lead federal agency, concurrent reviews, tiering, and other mechanisms that would streamline the review process, APPA went on to say.
Congress should codify definitive timelines for environmental impact statements and environmental assessments, with a transparent process for extension, it argued.
“Importantly, the ‘clock’ for a timeline should start after a permit application is submitted or upon the execution of a project memorandum of understanding.”
Additionally, Congress should maximize the use of categorical exclusions for all energy infrastructure projects that meet certain standards to maximize efficiency. “Expanding the use of CEs will conserve agency resources for actions that are otherwise more complex and require further environmental review.”
APPA also argued that Congress should support programmatic reviews where an agency is approving several similar actions or projects in a region or nationwide, a large-scale utility corridor project, for example, or a suite of ongoing, proposed, or reasonably foreseeable actions that share a common geography or timing, such as multiple activities within a defined boundary, like federal land or a specific facility.
“This will reduce delays caused by insufficient federal staffing and reduce the need to prepare and review redundant documents.”
Congress should also direct agencies to use existing studies and analyses of projects impacts by other federal agencies, states, or local governments rather than recreate them for use in environmental reviews, the trade group said.
During the scoping process, agencies should be required to review and determine if prior analyses address the issue under review and how such information should be utilized and incorporated, APPA said.
Details on Hearing
At the hearing, there was strong agreement on the need for congressional action on permitting reform. Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) voiced optimism that the committee will get a bill to the Senate floor before August recess.
Specifically, there was agreement amongst senators and witnesses on imposing deadlines on federal agency activities, putting in place time limits by which litigation must be filed, and strengthening the authority of lead federal agencies in the permitting process.
Manchin said that he believes that only entities that benefit from transmission lines should pay for them and that he thinks his recently released bill, which proposes to provide strengthened backstop authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and lets FERC allocate costs, accomplishes that.
Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) both discussed their recently introduced hydropower relicensing bill, S. 1521, the Community & Hydropower Improvement Act, which they hope to include in any permitting reform package.
