For years, proponents of green energy have argued that a slow, inefficient permitting process in the United States hinders a transition to clean sources of electricity.
“Permitting reform,” as it's called, is needed to unleash green energies like solar and wind, which don't emit greenhouse gases that cause climate change, supporters have argued.
The Trump administration agrees on the need to speed up energy projects, but not for wind or for solar, which is the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the U.S.
The Interior Department said late Wednesday it’s adopting an alternative process for energy projects to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, shortening the reviews to about 28 days and 14 days respectively. It typically takes about two years for the federal government to approve a full environmental impact statement or up to one year to complete an environmental assessment. The 1970 environmental law, known as NEPA, is designed to ensure community safeguards during reviews for a wide range of federal proposals, including roads, bridges and energy projects.
The procedures apply to energy sources including oil, natural gas, petroleum, uranium, coal, biofuels and critical minerals. They’ll also apply to geothermal and hydropower, both which generate electricity without emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases.
President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office to speed up fossil fuel development.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the department is cutting through unnecessary delays to fast-track resources that are essential to the nation's economy, military readiness and global competitiveness.
The cumbersome process helped enable China to dominant in processing and refining critical minerals, said Rich Nolan, president and chief executive officer of the National Mining Association. Streamlining it will make the U.S. more competitive, he added.
Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said the administration is using “a fake energy emergency” to strip away essential legal safeguards.
“It’s a blatantly illegal move, and we will see them in court,” she said in a statement.
The Sierra Club said it's concerned the new approach effectively reduces environmental review and public input to a formality.
“These arbitrary time limits make a complete review of the risks of potentially hazardous projects impossible,” Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, said in a statement Thursday. “A shoddy review means the true hazards of a project may only be known when the air or water thousands of people rely on is dangerously polluted.”
Randi Spivak, at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Interior’s plan “proves that Trump’s fabricated energy emergency is a hoax designed to ram through new fracking and coal mining.” Spivak, the center's public lands policy director, said it's a “lose-lose deal” for everyone other than the fossil fuel executives who support Trump.
During the Biden administration, the Interior Department tried to move fast on energy projects but did so within the fairly comfortable confines of existing permitting processes, said Travis Annatoyn, who was then the department's deputy solicitor for energy and mineral resources.
Burgum, on the other hand, is attempting to change the entire permitting process at a deep, structural level overnight, added Annatoyn, now counsel at the law firm Arnold & Porter.
By excluding solar and wind, the administration risks undercutting the asserted rationale for the energy emergency.
“In a real emergency, you would want to be pouring electrons onto the grid from any source you could find,” he said.
Last week, the Interior Department issued an order to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Burgum said he was doing so because it appeared the Biden administration rushed the approval. The Norwegian company Equinor went through a seven-year permitting process before starting to build Empire Wind last year.
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Credit: AP
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