The House passed a bipartisan deregulation bill known as the SPEED Act on Thursday, with just shy of a dozen Democrats supporting the measure amid America’s rising energy demand.
Eleven House Democrats voted for the SPEED Act, which passed the chamber by a 221-196 vote. If the legislation passes the Senate, it will reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a key environmental law that some energy policy experts argue burdens the sector with litigation threats.
The legislation was introduced by Republican Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman and Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden.
“The NEPA permitting process is broken and is holding America back,” House Committee on Natural Resources Spokesman Eli Mansour previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “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.”
American energy demand is climbing after years of remaining relatively flat. The Department of Energy (DOE) warned in a July report that continued retirement of reliable power sources, without adequate replacement, could result in a 100-fold increase in rolling blackouts across the U.S. by 2030.
NEPA became law in 1970 and requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impacts of things like permit applications and infrastructure projects. Former President Jimmy Carter later boosted NEPA with a 1977 executive order that deputized the Council on Environmental Quality to draft regulations governing the law’s implementation.
Critics of NEPA’s evolution argue that though it was crafted with good intentions, the law has been weaponized by environmental groups to challenge energy projects through litigation, even when those groups are not directly impacted.
The SPEED Act would codify the 8-0 Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County Supreme Court decisions on NEPA review, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. If signed into law, SPEED would help protect energy projects from litigation, as the legislation “establishes a heightened level of judicial deference for agency decisions made under NEPA,” the Bipartisan Policy Center writes.
Many energy companies and trade associations staunchly support the SPEED Act, arguing that NEPA reform will grant them clarity to build vital energy infrastructure as U.S. demand takes off.
“It shouldn’t take a decade to drill a well for oil or natural gas — or defend one in court. But for energy projects on federal lands, that’s become far too common,” Melissa Simpson, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a Thursday statement. “Endless litigation under NEPA has turned what the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed in the recent Seven County decision as a procedural statute into a weapon of perpetual delays.”
Notably, the SPEED Act included an amendment to acquiesce hardliners like Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris that argued the legislation needed to block protections for offshore wind projects to align it with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
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