Both Levin and Davis pointed to a July memo from the Interior Department requiring all wind and solar projects on federal land to receive higher-level approval from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“The administration doesn't even answer calls from developers. They don't respond to applications that are submitted,” Davis said. “That kind of approach is in stark contrast to the 'white glove, janitorial service' – and that's a quote from the Trump administration – the service that they provide to companies that use fossil fuels to access our public lands.”
The opponents of the SPEED Act also dispute the idea that NEPA reviews are one of the leading causes of allowing delays, arguing that reports from the Congressional Research Service and other groups have found little evidence to support these claims.
“Often missing from the conversations around NEPA is the empirical research that has been done, and there's a lot of that,” said Jarryd Page, staff attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, in a September interview with Inside Climate News.
That research indicates that limited resources are one of the biggest obstacles, Page said, such as not having enough staff to conduct the environmental assessments, or not having enough experience and technical knowledge.
The debate over NEPA and permitting process reform will now move to the Senate, where experts say the SPEED Act will likely see further changes.
“I think as the bill moves forward in the Senate, we'll likely see a neutral, across-the-board approach to making sure the process is fair for all types of technology,” Xan Fishman, an energy policy expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told ICN after Thursday's vote.
Fishman emphasized that it would be critical to ensure that project permits were not suddenly revoked for political reasons, but said he was optimistic about how the SPEED Act would be refined in the Senate.
“It's great to see Congress so committed to authorizing reforms,” he said. “Both sides of the aisle see the need to do better.”
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
