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12 Mar 2021 | 20:19 UTC — Houston
By Harry Weber
Highlights
Republican lawmakers decry gas pipeline project delays
Biden administration seeks to balance environmental goals
Houston — A group of US Republican lawmakers and industry advocates are trying to pressure the Biden administration to support changes to the National Environmental Policy Act review process that would speed up permitting and reduce costs of new energy infrastructure.
The effort comes as US infrastructure spending is expected to take center stage in Washington after the recently passed coronavirus pandemic relief bill.
There have long been complaints that regulatory hurdles make it difficult for new interstate natural gas pipelines to be built to meet growing demand for midstream services, especially in the US Northeast where there is a need to move more Appalachian Basin supplies to downstream markets. Some landowner and environmental groups counter that the barriers aren't tough enough.
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah reintroduced legislation March 11 that would comprehensively reform NEPA and federal agency processes for approving energy infrastructure. Among other things, the legislation would require federal agencies to complete the NEPA process in two years for proposed projects that need an Environmental Impact Statement.
For projects with an Environmental Assessment, it would impose a one-year deadline for agencies to issue a Categorical Exclusion and complete the NEPA process. Agencies would have to approve or deny permits within 90 days of completion of the NEPA process.
The bill, co-sponsored by Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, follows a letter that the US Chamber of Commerce and 40 other industry and advocacy groups issued March 2 calling on Congress to modernize the federal NEPA permitting process.
On the other side of the tug of war is the Democratic administration and its effort to balance industry concerns with its environmental protection goals.
The nominee to chair the US Council on Environmental Quality, Brenda Mallory, is a former government official now at the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center. SELC litigation helped slow the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which was ultimately scrapped by Dominion Energy.
EQM Midstream Partners' Mountain Valley Pipeline also has faced significant regulatory and legal hurdles over the years that have delayed its completion.
In recent testimony, Mallory said she views the central challenge for the CEQ chair as finding a way to ensure NEPA serves its multiple purposes, allowing for a robust analysis of impacts, while allowing the president's full agenda to be met, and at the same time allowing for significant infrastructure projects, thereby enabling economic recovery.
FERC, while chaired by Democrat Richard Glick, who has expressed concerns that the impact of greenhouse gas emissions have not been given enough weight in past agency decisions on pipeline infrastructure, is currently split 3-2 in favor of Republicans. That could change if President Biden nominates and Congress confirms a Democrat to replace Neil Chatterjee, whose term expires June 30.