Permitting

It would be a crucial step toward America realizing its potential as a clean energy superpower, but only if we can put our desires for a perfect policy aside and embrace practical compromise.

America has already begun to feel the impacts of landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. But how transformative these legislative achievements can be for American reindustrialization, our transition to a clean energy economy, and job growth rests on some key decisions still before Congress.

One bill with the power to make a remarkable difference is the bipartisan Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA) of 2024, which will come to the floor once the House and the Senate return in the fall.

Introduced in July by Senators Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., EPRA would be a crucial step toward America realizing its potential as a 21st century clean energy superpower, but only if…

Measuring the overall emissions impacts of EPRA requires assessing multiple provisions within the bill, including those that could have upward or downward pressure on emissions. While modeling the prescriptive impacts of the bill is challenging, the direction and magnitude of impacts is clear. The chart below places these provisions in scene together, presenting the banded range in which potential emissions impacts could fall.

Co-sponsored by the top two leaders in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 was introduced on Monday and has already garnered support from CCL, clean energy groups, public interest groups, and trade groups representing the fossil fuel industry.  Some groups, like the Center for Biological Diversity and Earth Justice are solidly against the Act, and the Sierra Club says it falls short of their standards to get their support (yet?).

This post reports on the legislative timelines, links to statements from the various interest groups and summaries of the Act itself.

CCL concludes: “It’s a really good bill!”

(from RTO Insider)
Reports Detail Growing List of State and Local Restrictions

Two new reports have been published on the profusion of local and state regulations affecting renewable energy development — one attempting to summarize them, the other quantifying the growing number of restrictions they impose. 

“Laws in Order: An Inventory of State Renewable Energy Siting Policies” summarizes the renewable energy siting and permitting policies in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. One of its findings is that the approach …

Here are two key facts about transmission lines: The U.S. needs a lot more of them to transition away from fossil fuels; they’re also incredibly difficult to build.

The challenge is negotiating permits for the power lines — which cross hundreds of miles — from the numerous jurisdictions and hundreds of private landowners along the planned route. This is a very slow process — too slow at its current pace for the U.S. to build enough power lines to meet its climate goals.

For the past half decade, bipartisan groups have been pushing federal and state lawmakers and transportation agencies to clear the way for a potential shortcut: siting power lines alongside highways….

Editor’s Note:This has a bit of “nerdy” detail, but it pretty accessible, I think.

CCL doesn’t lobby executive orders or regulatory rules. We only lobby legislation. So, none of this is directly applicable to today. But is really good background information about the state of the grid, the backlog of clean energy projects that slow grid upgrades are impeding and the issues involved in speeding things up — primarily deciding “who pays.”