Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Rural electric cooperatives are pressing for major changes to the Senate bipartisan permitting bill.
Why it matters: The Manchin-Barrasso bill, approved in a 15–4 Senate ENR vote in July, is the most comprehensive vehicle right now to get permitting across the finish line before the end of the year.
- Co-ops are influential with House Republicans already predisposed to resist its transmission provisions.
Driving the news: The co-ops take issue with provisions that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to issue permits for transmission lines, even if state regulators oppose them.
- "In its current form, the Manchin-Barrasso transmission title would greatly expand federal control over co-ops, subjecting them to unacceptable regulation and driving up costs for consumers," Louis Finkel, senior vice president of government relations for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), said in a statement to Axios.
- NRECA supports limiting judicial review and some of the bill's other ideas, but Finkel said that "can't come at the expense of not-for-profit electric cooperatives and their consumers."
Between the lines: Altering the transmission title could upend the permitting bill's delicate compromise.
- Greater federal control over transmission permitting is a huge priority for Democrats, renewable energy developers and data center companies seeking to connect more quickly to the power grid.
- Republicans have used transmission as a bargaining chip to secure provisions requiring onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing.
- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, who voted to advance the permitting bill in July, said at the time she would address cooperatives' concerns. Her state passed a law last year to maintain state jurisdiction over transmission.
