Senate Energy Leaders Announce Bipartisan Permitting Reform Agreement

After over two years of negotiations, Senators Manchin (I-WV) and Barrasso (R-WY) have announced a bipartisan permitting reform agreement. The 'Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024' addresses interstate transmission line expansion and overhauls the regulatory and judicial environments that have become obstacles to traditional energy infrastructure projects.

While other legislative priorities, as well as the legislative calendar itself, may make passage difficult, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee remain steadfast in their efforts to pass comprehensive permitting reform out of this Congress - and legacies may be on the line. Senator Manchin recently announced he would not be seeking re-election; on the Republican side, Senator Barrasso will relinquish his leadership position on the Committee in the next Congress when he is elected No. 2 in GOP leadership (he is running uncontested within the caucus).

High-level overviews of the bill's seven sections/titles are below:

• Title I (Judicial Review): Shortens timelines before, during, and after litigation on all types of federal authorizations for energy and mineral projects, without changing any existing rights to seek judicial review. The bill establishes a 150-day statute of limitations from the date of the final agency action on a project; requires courts to expedite review of legal challenges; and sets a 180-day deadline for federal agencies to act on remanded authorizations.

• Title II (Onshore Energy/Mineral Leasing): Accelerates leasing and permitting decisions for all types of energy projects on federal lands, without bypassing environmental and land-use laws. The bill:

  • ensures lease sales include oil and gas acreage that has actually been nominated;

  • sets deadlines and doubles production targets for renewable energy permitting on federal lands;

  • eliminates duplicative permit requirements for oil and gas production on non-federal surface land;

  • streamlines environmental reviews for low-disturbance renewable, electric grid, and storage projects;

  • sets deadlines to process applications to lease federal coal;

  • modernizes geothermal leasing and permitting processes;

  • ensures hardrock mining (e.g., critical minerals) projects can use federal land for mine support activities by establishing a new mill site claim, without changing existing law on the discovery of minerals; and,

  • dedicates revenue from new mill sites to abandoned hardrock mine reclamation. 

• Title III (Offshore Energy Leasing/Permitting): Requires the Secretary of the Interior to hold at least one offshore wind lease sale and one offshore oil and gas lease sale per year from 2025 through 2029, subject to minimum acreage requirements, without bypassing environmental reviews. Without these provisions, there will be several years through 2029 where both offshore wind and offshore oil and gas leasing will not take place under current law. 

• Title IV (Electric Transmission): Reforms existing backstop siting authority for interstate electric transmission lines and requires interregional transmission planning. These provisions provide two pathways for transmission development that include clear standards for cost allocation among customers that benefit from a project: 1) an interregional planning requirement that ensures regions jointly address needs; and, 2) a process that allows individual applicants to propose national-interest projects. Includes key features and guardrails that protect consumers, benefit communities, and respect state authorities:

  • requires qualifying transmission projects to improve electric reliability;

  • allocates costs only to customers that benefit using a minimum specified list of electric reliability and affordability benefits;

  • preserves current law ensuring that states have at least one year to respond to applications before applicants may go to FERC;

  • allows FERC to approve utility compensation to communities hosting transmission facilities;

  • applies equally with respect to all electric generation resources and to on- and offshore facilities;

  • prioritizes use of existing rights-of-way and advanced conductors to lower impacts and costs; and,

  • includes mechanisms to resolve disagreements and noncompliance. 

• Title V (Electric Reliability): Requires FERC and NERC to assess future federal regulations significantly affecting power plants and offer formal comments to federal agencies about any effects on electric reliability.

• Title VI (LNG Exports): Sets a 90-day deadline for the Secretary of Energy to grant or deny LNG export applications following environmental reviews, with applications deemed approved if the Secretary fails to meet the deadline. Ensures fact-based decision-making by requiring the Secretary to base decisions on DOE’s existing LNG economic and emissions studies, unless and until new studies are completed. The bill subjects any new study to peer review, notice and public comment, and other requirements of the Information Quality Act. 

• Title VII (Hydropower Licenses): Allows FERC to extend start-construction deadlines for certain existing hydropower licenses.

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Constitution Partners is actively engaged in the ongoing permitting reform negotiations. Please reach out with any questions.

Helpful Links

• Legislative Text (Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024)

• Section-by-Section Summary (Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024)