Sen. Joe Manchin holds a news conference on energy permitting reform in the Capitol on Sept. 20.
Photo:
Bill Clark/Zuma Press
Sen.
Joe Manchin
finally released the legislative text of his proposed permitting reforms this week, and what a disappointment. His take-it-or-leave-it proposal includes some marginal improvements that will benefit renewables but it creates new regulatory risks for fossil fuels, which is the opposite of what he promised.
We say this with regret because we had hoped the West Virginia Democrat had won more in return for his vote to pass his party’s tax increase and climate spending bill. The U.S. economy needs reform to break up regulatory and legal bottlenecks that delay projects for years, if they are ever built. Mr. Manchin had political leverage, but the bill shows he traded his vote on the cheap.
The clearest winner, you won’t be surprised to learn, is Mr. Manchin. The bill would give a crucial boost to the Mountain Valley Pipeline by requiring agencies to issue permits and blocking judicial review. The pipeline, which seeks to deliver gas from West Virginia to the Southeast, is 95% complete but is tied up in court. Mr. Manchin has made a political cause of the pipeline, and it is sorely needed.
Alas, there is little else to cheer about. The bill takes a stab at speeding up timelines for project approvals but not in a way that would require real action.
The President would have to designate 25 energy projects of strategic national importance, but only five must be for fossil fuels or biofuels such as ethanol. Federal agencies would be directed to try to complete environmental reviews on these projects within two years, but nothing compels agencies to meet these deadlines. Projects the President doesn’t favor could languish in regulatory purgatory.
The bill sets a 150-day statute of limitations on legal challenges to environmental reviews and permits, which is intended to prevent…
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