House Republicans are plowing ahead with a bipartisan permitting reform bill this week as the issue of deregulation takes center stage in Congress approaching recess, despite opposition from some hardliners.
If signed into law, Republican Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman and Democratic Maine Rep. Rep. Jared Golden’s SPEED Act would reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a keystone federal environmental law that the White House recently targeted. Like many deregulatory proposals, environmental groups are fighting the SPEED Act, though some hardliner House Republicans have also been resisting the measure, arguing that it would pave the way for offshore wind projects President Donald Trump has staunchly opposed.
“The last thing we need to do with offshore wind is to tie the administration’s hands in stopping that ridiculously expensive source of energy that enriches foreign companies with American taxpayer dollars,” Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the SPEED Act would do.”
NEPA — which requires agencies to consider infrastructure projects’ — became law in 1970. Former President Jimmy Carter subsequently bolstered it with a 1977 executive order that deputized the Council on Environmental Quality to draft regulations governing the law’s implementation.
Several NEPA reforms within the SPEED Act would codify the 8-0 Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County Supreme Court decision on NEPA review, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Critics of NEPA’s evolution, including Westerman and Golden, argue that while the law was crafted with good intentions, it has been weaponized by environmental groups to delay or block energy projects through litigation, even when they are not directly affected.
Some SPEED Act amendments that survived a Monday House Rules Committee hearing are set to hit the floor Tuesday afternoon. The rule teed up debate and votes on amendments demanded by critics of the permitting bill, but left intact language that some conservatives say could limit Trump’s ability to halt offshore wind projects.
Harris has opposed SPEED Act amendments that protect offshore wind projects, with a spokesperson for Harris writing to the DCNF that bill amendments are needed to stop the “ridiculously expensive energy scheme that enriches foreign companies with American taxpayer dollars.” In its current form, the SPEED Act would make it more difficult for local governments to slow or stop energy projects, including offshore wind farms, a few of which are being litigated on the East Coast.
Harris and Van Drew have threatened to block the rule, with Harris telling E&E News Monday that “if it comes down with the … amendment still attached, it’s going to have a bad day tomorrow.” Other critics that do not wish to see renewables or offshore wind specifically benefit from the SPEED Act include Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Republican New Jersey Reps. Van Drew and Chris Smith.
Van Drew and Smith represent New Jersey districts where many constituents strongly oppose offshore wind projects, while Roy is a leading critic of federal subsidies and fast-tracking for renewable energy. Harris has opposed offshore wind over concerns about environmental impacts, national security risks and the foreign companies benefiting financially from wind projects in his constituents’ backyards.
“The NEPA permitting process is broken and is holding America back,” House Committee on Natural Resources Spokesman Eli Mansour told the DCNF. “The SPEED Act is the solution to get America building again, bring down costs, deliver affordable energy to American families and support our national security. Chairman Westerman has been engaging with House members on the SPEED Act to ensure we have a strong product that reflects the will of the Conference.”
Some energy sector insiders and policy stressed the importance of bipartisan permitting reform to the DCNF, with the Vice President of Domestic Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers Chris Phalen voicing strong support for the SPEED Act.
Phalen argued that the SPEED Act would make “crucial” NEPA reforms, thanking Westerman and urging Congress to advance the legislation.
“Manufacturers have long called for an all of the above energy approach. To unlock the full potential of pro-growth tax reforms, unleash American energy and outcompete China on the world stage, Congress must act to fix our broken permitting process,” Phalen told the DCNF. “Our current permitting system undermines traditional and renewable energy alike, with a morass of red-tape and endless litigation bringing projects to a halt.”
Cato’s Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Studies Travis Fisher told the DCNF that Trump’s crackdown on green energy projects might usher in bipartisan permitting reform at a time that the U.S. desperately needs it.
“I have to give Trump credit,” Fisher told the DCNF. “Cancelling projects at the executive level has caused a lot of pearl clutching, and I am optimistic that the permitting debate will be productive this time now that Trump has held up a mirror to the other side. This has motivated people to get into a bipartisan posture on permitting reform.”
Fisher added that the artificial intelligence (AI) load crunch has shined a light on how the staunch opposition to any new fossil fuel infrastructure coming from some on the political left is “ridiculous.” Fisher noted that as long as conservatives “can stomach some transmission lines” and other green energy projects, the Congressional permitting debate might finally be able to make positive permitting reform moves.
Fisher said Trump’s work-stop orders, along with former President Joe Biden’s project cancellations and permitting freezes — such as Keystone XL and the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export pause — highlight the need for permitting reform that prevents the executive branch from unilaterally blocking projects after they have cleared the regulatory process.
Other influential energy policy thought leaders like author Alex Epstein argue the SPEED Act represents meaningful permitting reform that can align Republicans and Democrats.
“The SPEED Act benefits cost-effective projects much more than it benefits heavily subsidized projects,” Epstein wrote on X on Friday, arguing that SPEED is “technology-neutral.”
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