OPINION:
Our country has a permitting problem. Whether building a liquefied natural gas export facility in Louisiana, repaving interstate highways, or establishing a new site for a manufacturing plant relocating from China, permitting can delay and even prevent projects from starting up — sometimes after millions are invested in planning and preparation. The U.S. did not always have this problem.
The Empire State Building was completed in thirteen and a half months. Today, American businesses would be winning the lottery if they received a single permit in that time.
What’s the problem? Laws and processes originally developed with good intent to preserve the environment are now legal instruments used to kill progress. Instead of serving as guardrails as America moves forward, these regulations have been used as tools by the radical Left and environmental lobby to block projects of all kinds, from solar farms to power lines. The good news is that members of Congress are offering legislative solutions that preserve the environment while allowing projects to advance — returning implementation of these laws to their original intent. While the preferred projects of Republicans and Democrats may differ, the end goal is the same: build projects and create jobs in the U.S., not overseas.
To address these issues constructively, Congress must modernize laws and regulations like the Clean Air Act, which is often abused. Bipartisan legislation I introduced with Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) updates permitting without compromising public health or the environment. The Modernizing Clean Air Permitting Act ensures that the Environmental Protection Agency accounts for naturally occurring levels of things like ozone and does not require industry to lower levels below that which occurs naturally.
It also incentivizes businesses to implement pollution control technology, not hinder it as in the status quo. Right now, if a company wishes to voluntarily reduce their emissions, they must obtain a new permit. That new permit could take years to obtain and cost millions of dollars. This is absurd. Our legislation repeals this backward cycle.
Judicial review — the authority of courts to determine the legitimacy of federal actions — is also subject to abuse. This abuse can take the form of frivolous cases increasing the court backlog, venue shopping for an optimal outcome, or courts taking their sweet time to issue a decision. These are all means to the same end: messing with the timeline of projects to throw construction dates and costs out of whack.
The Revising and Enhancing Project Authorizations Impacted by Review, or REPAIR, Act, fixes the judicial review process for U.S. energy, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure projects. For an approved permit, the REPAIR Act ensures all laws related to permitting have the same review process, scope of adjudication, standing rules, and statute of limitations. The bill also requires lawsuits to be filed under the specific statute for which the permit was issued. In the case of a judicial remand or other court action, it establishes a mediation process that allows the project developer and the permit-issuing agency to directly address the challenge to allow the project to move forward. In doing so, the judicial review process no longer acts as a delay tactic forcing projects into legal purgatory but serves as the check and balance it was always intended to be.
This is the right time to get this right. Laws like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act are working with U.S. companies to expand our industrial base. But these laws and investments remain stymied by a permitting and regulatory system that prevents projects from coming to fruition. Without addressing these hurdles, new investments will perpetually face frivolous lawsuits that do nothing but delay or stop projects unnecessarily.
Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that well-intentioned laws aimed at preserving our environment are being exploited to block projects that could contribute positively to that very purpose. We must get permitting right, for the sake of progress, jobs, and environmental protection.
• Dr. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, is the state’s senior United States senator. He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee (HELP) Committee. He also serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Finance Committee and Veterans Affairs committees. Prior to the U.S. Senate, he served in the U.S. House, State Senate and taught LSU medical students and residents at Earl K. Long, a hospital for the uninsured.
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