OPINION:
It’s no secret that energy prices have risen over the past couple of years and continue to climb.
Americans are demanding relief at the pump and stable power bills. We know that years of poor policy decisions are largely to blame, and we know that we can lower costs for Ohioans if we work together here in Congress and take action. Our mission on Capitol Hill is simple: Update the clumsy and outdated regulatory process associated with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Why is NEPA such a problem? Simply put, its convoluted and obsolete processes and requirements keep important energy projects from getting built, keeping energy sources such as oil and natural gas from reaching the marketplace. If we truly want to help lower gas prices and use the energy under our feet rather than foreign imports, we should reform NEPA sooner rather than later. The best way to overhaul NEPA is by building on the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which Congress approved and sent to the President in June to include stronger and smarter relief efforts to streamline American energy projects.
Sadly, NEPA’s overly burdensome requirements led to hundreds of energy projects, including some here in Ohio, being stuck in the regulatory mud. These aren’t just fossil fuel projects either. Recent analysis by the R Street Institute shows that clean energy projects outnumber oil and gas projects nearly three-to-one among the Department of Energy’s (DOE) active NEPA projects. What’s the hold-up? The permitting logjam is partly due to a NEPA review process that takes an average of 4.5 years to proceed. Important projects simply get bogged down by red tape and apathetic bureaucrats.
On May 31, 2023, I voted to include provisions in the Fiscal Responsibility Act to speed up the federal permitting process. Specifically, I voted to limit environmental analyses to two years and require projects to name a single lead agency to develop one master environmental review document. We took a strong step in the right direction by implementing more enforceable timelines in project permitting, providing more regulatory clarity for developers, and blocking delay tactics used by activists to slow or stop projects.
Unfortunately, despite strong language in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the White House Council on Environmental Quality chose to ignore congressional intent in their recently proposed “Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule.” This proposed rule should simply implement the common-sense streamlining changes to NEPA required by the law. Instead, the proposed rule includes backdoor policy changes to require agencies to provide greater consideration of environmental justice in the review process. This will further exacerbate project delays, not streamline them. In fact, the 236-page document references “environmental justice” 72 times, despite a total of zero references in the law it is implementing.
As if slowing down important projects weren’t enough, NEPA’s outdated processes lead to squandered economic opportunities – leaving American energy in the ground rather than on the grid. Until Congress provides major reforms to NEPA and cuts the unnecessary red tape, we’ll continue to lose out on job opportunities and infrastructure projects here in Ohio. Serious reform would unlock projects stuck in regulatory purgatory and strengthen an Ohio energy sector that, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, already supports more than 351,000 jobs and contributes over $55 billion toward the state’s economy.
Permitting reform has broad support. This includes the Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Farm Bureau, and others who previously told federal officials that NEPA’s review process “unnecessarily complex, unreasonably time-consuming, and uncertain.”
In a joint letter, these diverse Ohio voices stated, “NEPA reviews touch almost every part of our economy – from highways to railroads, grazing to timber, manufacturing to energy and airports to seaports. It even touches parts of the economy yet to be fully realized. Reducing delays and uncertainties associated with infrastructure investment and related projects has the potential to support more and better-paying jobs throughout the country.”
House Republicans have offered meaningful solutions to addressing our energy problems—from H.R. 1, the Lower Costs Act, to the recently proposed Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act, which will streamline the permitting process for pipelines.
Getting permitting reform across the finish line will get more American resources from the ground to the grid, provide relief at the pump, and help unlock American energy that today is chained down by NEPA’s heavy shackles.
- Congressman Balderson (OH-12) is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee
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