To vote for permitting reform both sides need to trust that they'll get to build whether they're in power or out. Right now wind & solar are getting shadow-blocked but the same authorities could be misused against oil & gas. A thread on how Congress can fix this: 🧵 (1/9)
Federal permitting laws are written with the assumption that the feds will try to approve projects. All the penalties are focused on ensuring the gov doesn't move too fast. But this is a huge flaw: If the feds decide to just sit on a permit there's nothing anyone can do (2/9)
The ability to withhold, slow-walk, or deny permits for spurious reasons creates a defaco ability regulate & control projects politicians don't like. Misusing these authorities has become increasingly common and creates enormous uncertainty for industry. (3/9)
Fixing this is hard because there are dozens of required permits and legal hooks to slow or revoke approvals. A government committed to using these authorities in bad faith has dozens of options to screw with permits, grants, contracts, or withhold needed support. (4/9)
To tie the hands of federal agencies reform needs to: -Establish clear definitions of covered actions and covered authorities. -Create a clear timeline for issuing the relevant permits -Create an enforceable penalty for a failing to meet the timeline (5/9)
If the language is not clear enough a government acting in bad faith can easily find a different authority to block a project with. If there's no enforceable penalty the federal agencies may simply ignore Congress's directive. (6/9)
For example the new Casten-Levin bill would revoke the DOI memo mistreating wind and require that renewables get the same treatment as oil & gas. BUT! The bill doesn't enforce the new standard other than requiring a report to Congress. The Trump admin could just ignore it! (7/9)
A good provision in Casten-Levin is tying approval of one type of energy to the other (i.e. the gov must approve renewable projects before approving fossil). But because there are so many legal hooks the government could likely get around this and block wind & solar anyway (8/9)
A better solution is to set clear time caps and allow project sponsors to sue for fees if the government delays further. In practice this would function as a rarely used threat that keeps agencies on time. (9/9)
@AidanRMackenzie It's not only that, it affects the consumer also. I just got rid of my propane furnace for a heat pump like they kept telling us to do, just in time for Trump to drive up electricity prices. Consumers need certainty just as much as companies do.