Manchin, Barrasso unveil permitting bill

• The legislation mirrors some of the ideas Manchin has proposed in previous ill-fated bills. It targets changes to specific industries and infrastructure, rather than sweeping overhauls of underlying environmental laws.

Driving the news: The topline provision is a new 150-day statute of limitations to challenge environmental permits in court — a much-discussed idea that was left out of last year's debt ceiling deal.

• The bill would also effectively toss out the LNG export permits pause by putting a 90-day shot clock on the Energy Department to approve or deny pending applications.
• On transmission, it would require a rulemaking from FERC on interregional power lines (the commission has already moved on smaller regional projects).
• And it includes a big suite of policies to expedite leasing and permitting of geothermal projects and treat them more like oil and gas.

Zoom in: The transmission provisions are significant in a bipartisan bill, given that intense GOP opposition has helped stall the permitting debate for years now.

• The bill would eliminate DOE's authority to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. Instead, FERC would be given power to determine that a transmission line is in the national interest.
• Smaller grid improvements and projects in existing rights of way would get an easier NEPA permitting process.
• And it would tackle the sticky issue of cost allocation by setting up a quantifiable standard based on reliability benefits and other factors to help decide who pays for power lines.

The bill also sets out a whole bunch of other targeted changes across the mining, renewable and oil and gas industries.

• That includes mandated lease sales for both offshore oil and offshore wind and new deadlines for Interior to make decisions on coal leasing.
• And notably, there's language to deal with the impacts of the Rosemont decision by creating a new claims system for hardrock miners to site their mine-related infrastructure on federal lands.

Reality check: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has publicly declared that getting a permitting deal over the finish line would be "virtually impossible."

Our thought bubble: The bill likely won't fully satisfy folks in industry and Republican hardliners who want to open up the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act or Endangered Species Act.

• But while the outlook for a permitting bill still isn't great, this certainly makes it more possible.

Editor's note: This story has been clarified to specify that per the bill, the Energy Department would no longer have any role in designating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.