Capito eyes nuclear oversight and permitting

• Capito, EPW's new chair, has already clashed with the commission over its interpretation of a provision requiring a change to its mission statement.

Capito spoke to Axios on Friday to discuss her priorities …

Nuclear notes: Capito wants "detailed" oversight of ADVANCE to ensure the NRC is enacting the law the way that she and its other architects intended.

• "If we see that they're not implementing, then we may come back in with some legislative enhancements," she said.
• That could include beefing up the law's language or new provisions to accelerate licensing timelines, she said.

Bipartisan musings: Capito wrote ADVANCE with new Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse, and she said the pair have already had a "lengthy meeting."

• "I've worked with him on the ADVANCE Act, worked with him on the 45Q carbon capture [tax credit]. And so we do already have established areas of at least agreement."
• Capito said she specifically waited until Democrats had all the paperwork in hand to schedule a confirmation hearing for EPA nominee Lee Zeldin, in contrast to the feud that's sprung up on Energy and Natural Resources.
• "There was pressure for expediency's sake to break those … agreements. And I just didn't want to do it. It's important that we get off on the right foot here."

Permitting: Transportation bills, historically, are one of the primary vehicles for changes to permitting laws. But Capito and others still want to get something done separately this year.

• She's spoken to House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman and new Senate ENR Chair Mike Lee about it, as well as a few other senators.

• She sees Manchin-Barrasso as a good jumping-off point: "Transmission's got to be part of this.… We've got to make sure that we're doing it in a way that serves all aspects of delivering energy."

Infrastructure week: Capito's already thinking about reauthorizing the surface transportation programs from the IIJA, many of which expire in 2026.

• That's likely to become a major legislative priority in the back end of this Congress.
• "Some of these discretionary programs, they haven't pushed the money out, they've loaded on different metrics. If it's not working, we need to get rid of it."

IRA watch: Capito's main target in reconciliation will be EPA spending (more on that below). But broadly, she acknowledged that the whole law isn't going away.

• "I can tell you that some of the tax credits that are in the IRA have produced significant numbers of jobs, and some in my state," she said. "I think we're going to have to look at those individually."