Manchin, Barrasso announce permitting reform deal, breaking lengthy impasse

Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) have reached an agreement on a bill to speed up the nation’s energy and infrastructure projects after about two years of trying to reach a deal. 

The bill takes on a suite of issues known collectively as permitting reform. It is expected to bolster the buildout of both renewable and fossil fuel energy sources. 

Passing a permitting reform bill has been a long-time priority of Manchin’s and is expected to be considered a legacy issue for him after he departs the Senate next year. It’s not immediately clear whether party leaders have bought into the plan, if it will be brought to the floor or if it will garner enough votes to evade a filibuster. 

“After over a year of holding hearings in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, thoughtfully considering input from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and engaging in good faith negotiations, Ranking Member Barrasso and I have put together a commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation that will speed up permitting and provide more certainty for all types of energy and mineral projects without bypassing important protections for our environment and impacted communities,” Manchin said in a written statement. 

“The Energy Permitting Reform Act will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader. The time to act on it is now,” he added.

The legislation includes a key Democratic priority: improving the nation’s ability to build out power lines. Doing so would likely help more renewable energy plug into the nation’s electric grid. 

The bill would enhance that ability by shortening the process to allow federal energy regulators to approve new power lines. 

The bill also contains provisions that boost fossil fuels. 

For one, it would set a deadline for the Energy Department to make a decisions about whether to approve or reject a gas export project — effectively barring policies like President Biden’s now-stalledpause on gas export approvals. 

The legislation also seeks to make it easier to extract oil gas and coal from public lands and to build renewable projects there.

It would additionally require the federal government to give companies at least one opportunity each year to bid on chances to drill offshore and to bid on chances to build offshore wind farms between the years 2025 and 2029. This provision would expand offshore drilling beyond the Biden administration’s current plans to offer up to three chances to bid on offshore drilling rights during that period. 

The bill would also cut down on the amount of time that opponents of energy projects have to sue over their approval — creating hurdles for those who want to challenge them on environmental or other grounds. 

The announcement comes after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in May that reaching a permitting reform deal would be “virtually impossible” this year amid a lengthy impasse that Democrats and Republicans had on the issue. 

Schumer has touted new rules from federal energy regulators as an alternative to what Congress had not been able to achieve. 

The majority leader in 2022 agreed to support permitting reform legislation in exchange for Manchin’s vote on the Democrats’ sweeping climate, tax and healthcare bill. 

Republicans ultimately tanked the 2022 efforts amid tensions with Manchin over his support for the Democratic measure. 

The new agreement comes shortly before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess — meaning there’s little time left this year to pass significant legislation. 

— Updated at 4:40 p.m.