By Timothy Gardner and Nichola Groom
WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – US senators from both parties said on Wednesday they have reached a deal to reform laws on the permitting of large energy and infrastructure projects, though a vote will not occur before the midterm elections.
The agreement marks a significant milestone in the years-long effort by Congress to overhaul federal permitting, which lawmakers and industry groups say is needed to speed construction of transmission lines, data centers, mines and both renewable and fossil fuel energy projects.
Talks on the legislation had halted in December when President Donald Trump paused five East Coast offshore wind farms that were nearly complete. The effort accelerated in recent weeks after Trump reassured Democrats that wind and solar energy projects would be given better treatment in the bill.
“We’re motivated by one central shared concern: we want to make it easier in America to build things,” Republican Senator Mike Lee, the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, told reporters at a press conference.
Environmental groups criticized the proposal for weakening safeguards, while industry groups spanning renewable developers and oil and gas producers praised it as a long-overdue effort to speed infrastructure development.
“Washington has a generational opportunity to fundamentally transform a broken permitting system and help address the affordability challenges facing American consumers,” American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers said in a statement, calling on Congress to “seize this moment and finish the job.”
The White House supports the bill, according to an official who said it would lower costs and create jobs.
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act would speed up federal approvals by setting deadlines for environmental reviews, limiting court challenges and making it harder for permits to be overturned once issued, according to the bill text released on Wednesday. It would require agencies to finish major reviews within one to two years and streamline coordination across departments.
It also places emphasis on the electric grid, creating new processes for approval of transmission lines and upgrades. The bill includes provisions to accelerate renewable energy projects and explicitly covers both onshore and offshore wind.
One provision specifically protects against a pattern of federal agencies unfairly delaying or denying permits for a specific technology.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, said nothing in the bill was easy and it will take more work on amendments before a vote.
“A lot of dead-end avenues had to be explored before we found the compromises that made this possible,” he said.
Whitehouse said lawmakers needed more clarity on “the question of returning to regular order for wind and solar projects” from the Trump administration and that the issue is unresolved.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, said the “goal” is for the permitting bill to be the first vote taken in the chamber after it returns following the November 3 midterm elections.
The US House of Representatives, which has not passed the permitting bill, is scheduled to be in recess until after the November midterm elections.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Nichola Groom; Editing by David Gregorio)
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