Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) touted the inclusion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the bill. The controversial pipeline, which would transport fuel from West Virginia to Virginia, has become a key personal project for Manchin, who is up for reelection next year.
In addition to approving the pipeline, the bill would also set two-year time limits for the most rigorous type of environmental review.
It would limit less rigorous reviews to one year and also implement page limits.
When looking to implement similar reforms, the Trump administration found that the average timeline for more rigorous reviews was about 4.5 years.
The legislation would make it easier for agencies to exclude entire categories of projects from environmental review if another agency has already issued a similar exclusion for that type of project.
It did not include significant reforms to build out the country’s electric infrastructure, as many Democrats had been pushing for.
It did, however, require a study of how much electricity can be transferred between the country’s different grid regions and adds energy storage to the types of projects eligible for a program that could provide more coordination in their approval process.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
