Despite breakthrough, Manchin and Barrasso’s permitting reform effort faces hurdles

Although Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) finally reached an agreement on energy permitting reform this week, their effort still faces an uphill climb. 

They’ll need to convince leadership and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to support their deal — and to give them floor space at the end of the year. For Manchin, who is not seeking reelection and will leave the Senate when his term ends in January, it marks the last chance to accomplish a long-time priority and one that is expected to be a legacy issue for him.

So far, several key lawmakers have said they are open to the effort, which seeks to bolster the buildout of both renewable and fossil fuel energy sources — but they have stopped short of endorsing it.

“I’d like to get permitting reform done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters when asked about the bill this week. 

Schumer said he had not yet seen the text of the agreement, and didn’t say whether he supported it.

House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), who has been negotiating with Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) to reach a House-side deal, said the Manchin-Barrasso language will “mesh really well” with their own efforts. 

It’s not clear what any effort to mesh the two could look like, however, as Peters and Westerman have not yet detailed any sort of agreement. 

The Barrasso-Manchin bill, unveiled Monday after a two-year effort to get permitting reform across the finish line, comes shortly before lawmakers prepare to depart Washington for the August recess. The Senate is also slated to be out in October and early November, as many lawmakers focus on their reelection campaigns and the presidential race — leaving limited time on the legislative calendar.

The legislation includes provisions that are aimed at strengthening and improving interregional connectivity for the nation’s electric grid, bolstering the buildout of renewable and fossil energy and shortening the window to sue to block energy projects. 

“This legislation has something in it for everybody because it’ll make it easier to have affordable, reliable energy. It’ll also reduce emissions a lot,“ said Xan Fishman, senior director of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Fishman said the emissions reductions are expected to come from the provisions that bolster the grid, as well as those that seek to make it easier to build renewable energy projects. 

The bill faces opposition from progressives and environmental advocates who object to its pro-fossil fuel measures and those that could make it harder for community or environmental opponents of an energy project to block it. 

“For Joe Manchin, I’m sure he wants to go out swinging for the fossil fuel industry and we’re going to be swinging back in a big way,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). “We need to find a way to kill the zombie one more time.”

Schumer said in 2022 that he would back Manchin’s efforts to speed up the process for approving energy projects in exchange for Manchin’s vote on the Democrats’ climate, tax and health care bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

However, stung by Manchin’s support of the IRA and saying his efforts did not go far enough, many Republicans ultimately opposed the West Virginia senator’s 2022 permitting proposal.

And earlier this year, Schumer himself threw cold water on permitting reform’s prospects, saying it would be “virtually impossible” to get done in the near term. 

“I think it’s going to be very hard to get anything done legislatively on transmission at this point given the composition of the House with a Republican majority and so few Republicans eager to do any kind of regional transmission,” he told reporters. 

But Barrasso spokesperson Brian Faughnan told The Hill in an email Thursday that the senator and his staff “have been communicating with relevant members and offices in the House and Senate.” 

He added that Barrasso “will look for opportunities to advance the bill during the lame duck session of Congress.”

Manchin and Barrasso, the chair and ranking member of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, are pressing forward with their legislation using the little time they have before the recess. 

Their committee is slated to mark up the bill next week. And it’s receiving praise from key lawmakers including Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.), who called it a “pretty good effort.”

Yet some potential supporters, including Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who supports permitting reform broadly but said Tuesday he had not yet read the latest agreement, expressed doubt about whether the bill could actually get done. 

“I’m not optimistic about this year,” he said, saying the election could “get in the way.”

Zack Budryk contributed.