Congress: Amend the Energy Permitting Reform Act!

What’s clean, green, and red all over? All the red tape holding up our renewable energy! In its current state, the permitting process to build clean energy power projects is painfully slow. It can take decades before a single shovel breaks ground. Our communities cannot afford to wait around for these lengthy processes as the electric grid holds back progress for more affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. A shortened approval process is needed now.

The recently proposed Energy Permitting Reform Act addresses this issue by streamlining approvals for energy projects and setting ambitious renewable energy goals. However, the proposed bill also prioritizes fossil fuels over renewables and isn’t clear on how to avoid negative impacts on communities.

We need permitting reform now. This bill could be the ticket, but we need Congress to negotiate further to promote clean energy and protect our communities.

We urge Congress to amend the bill to ensure that communities are brought into the early stages of the permitting process. In addition, the statute of limitations for oil and gas leasing should also be extended to one year instead of the proposed 150 days to allow sufficient time for community feedback. Without such changes, we will do nothing but maintain the status quo of an inefficient oil and gas-dominant energy economy. Let’s not let the polluters win — act now and have your voice heard!

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Congress,

We, the undersigned, urge you to amend the Energy Permitting Reform Act to better support the transition to clean energy and ensure a stable economy for all Americans. While the current bill takes necessary steps toward streamlining the permit process and improving the grid, we need to make sure that our communities and our climate are protected from polluters.

We support the following provisions:

Ambitious Goals: Increase the permitted capacity of renewables on federal land to 50 GW by 2030.
Interregional Planning: Require transmission planners to collaborate with neighboring regions for comprehensive buildout, rate structures, and cost allocation.
Cost Allocation: Ensure project costs are borne only by those who benefit from the projects.
Streamlined Approvals: Remove the current designation process to expedite the approval of essential transmission projects.

We oppose the following provisions:

Pollution Bias: Prioritizing fossil fuels over renewable sources undermines our clean energy goals.
Community Impact: Shortened statutes of limitations for judicial reviews and expanded categorical exclusions could shortcut community engagement without proper protections in place.
Permitting Oversight: Leniencies for drilling, coal, and natural gas lack sufficient oversight, increasing the risk of industry abuse.

Reforming the permitting process is crucial. The current bill is a step in the right direction, but we need you to advocate for an expedited transition to clean energy that will benefit our communities. We call on you to amend the Energy Permitting Reform Act to reflect these changes and accelerate the current approval time for much-needed infrastructure projects.