Garret Graves speaks last month. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Lots of attention and money are flowing into D.C. to overhaul environmental permitting laws — but H.R. 1 shows Democrats and Republicans are still far apart on making that happen, Nick writes.
Why it matters: The focus from K Street and the Biden administration's top levels is helping keep the permitting conversation alive as H.R. 1 reaches the floor, despite divides about what "permitting reform" even means.
Driving the news: H.R. 1 is the GOP starting point for that kind of deal.
- "Dems may come to the table because they need [permitting overhaul] for their renewable energy, they need it for their transmission. Republicans may come to the table because they need it for their [pipelines] or whatever else," Garret Graves told reporters last week. "But there is no reason why this should not be a bipartisan effort."
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce circulated a letter — signed by major renewables and fossil fuel trade organizations — calling for a deal by the end of the summer, as Axios' Ben Geman reported.
- Biden administration officials have also been calling for a bipartisan permits bill in speaking appearances and at committee hearings.
Yes, but: Some Democrats who want to negotiate with the GOP don’t view H.R. 1 as a serious opening bid.
- "Unless they engage in bipartisan, bicameral conversations, I will just assume that they're doing this to have some talking points to make the American Petroleum Institute happy," Sen. Brian Schatz told Axios.
Democrats are entertaining the permitting conversation because they want to make it easier to build the new transmission lines that will be needed to deploy more renewables and hit climate goals.
- But in many cases, it's not necessarily federal permitting laws holding up those projects.
- "We have a cost-allocation problem. We have a connecting-all-the-interregional-conflicts problem. It's not fundamentally a NEPA problem," Sean Casten told Axios.
- "We use the same words [on overhauling permitting], but we're talking about wildly different things," Casten added.
This dynamic has some members saying now shouldn't be the time to ask, "Will they make a deal?"
- "I think the dialogue is important first. I hope we get to consensus-building here, but first let's stake down our principles, our goals," E&C Democrat Paul Tonko told Axios.
What we're watching: The National Environmental Policy Act will be a focal point of whatever talks happen.
- The GOP bill would expand the kinds of projects eligible for fast-tracked NEPA review and limit lawsuits against project permits, as we told you this month.
- There's also bipartisan interest in easing the regulatory path for emerging technologies like small nuclear reactors and geothermal power.
Quick take: Plenty of moderate Democrats are open to those ideas, but progressives think Congress should speed projects by giving FERC more power to site lines and offering permitting agencies more resources without changing environmental laws.
- Any deal that gives renewables and fossil fuels equal treatment would be "a really dumb idea," Jared Huffman told Axios.
Of note: The White House, unsurprisingly, issued a veto threat for H.R. 1, but the administration kept the door open to a deal centered on renewable and low-carbon energy.
- We expect a more bipartisan conversation to emerge among Senate committee leaders once the House does its thing this week.
Go deeper: Industry folks have raised the idea of tying a permits bill to debt ceiling talks, and that appears to have some currency with House Republicans, as Politico reported.
