Photo Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that getting anything done on permitting this Congress will be "virtually impossible."
Why it matters: The outlook for a permitting bill has looked increasingly bleak since the beginning of this year.
- But Schumer's comments to reporters today add new weight to FERC's landmark transmission planning rule and the Biden administration's attempts to speed permitting.
Driving the news: Schumer said he's supportive of Joe Manchin and John Barrasso's efforts to draft a permitting bill.
- But, he said, "I've told Joe Manchin it's going to be virtually impossible to get something done."
Zoom in: The remark came in a press call Schumer arranged to celebrate the FERC transmission rule, approved in a 2-1 vote in the commission's meeting this morning.
- The New York Democrat had been pressing FERC to finish up the rule, and he said he sees it as an "alternative" to congressional action.
- "With the Republicans in the Senate being so strongly against transmission, and now with a House Republican majority, I think FERC was the necessary and really only way to go, until maybe things will change after the election."
