During National Clean Energy Week (NCEW), the need for permitting reform in the U.S. came up in nearly every conversation. Heather Reams, president and CEO of the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) Forum, as well as the chair of NCEW, spoke with leaders from the American Clean Power Association, Avantus, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, the Clean Energy Buyers Association, and the National Hydropower Association about the challenges and opportunities involved in the process during a Smart Brevity session.
Gene Grace, SVP and general counsel at the American Clean Power Association (ACP), opened the conversation by discussing the various bottlenecks caused by permitting issues. He said that executive action is the primary issue holding up progress, as it prevents clean energy projects from having the same permitting opportunity as other technologies. “[That’s issue] number one,” he said, “because that essentially stops, clearly, any projects that are on public lands and public waters because they need federal permits. But I think one thing people don’t realize is, even if you’re on private lands, that impacts you as well.” Grace argues that timeliness is the second issue, especially when agencies fail to initiate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process promptly. Then, even when a project is fully permitted, it can be subject to litigation, particularly via an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenge for being arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise not in accordance with law. Finally, there is just not enough inter-regional transmission built to support the 2,000 gigawatts (GW) in interconnection queues.
The problem with recent executive orders, for example, is that they create uncertainty. Revoking permits for wind and solar projects has not been helpful, Grace noted: “It doesn’t do a lot to speed up the process if, at the end of the day, there is no permit that you can get.” Long-term certainty across all technologies is essential because it translates into investment certainty for the financial community. Cliff Graham, CEO of next-generation energy leader Avantus, doubled down on the need for certainty: “Whatever the rules are, we can live with. Just set them and leave them, and let’s move on… If we could figure out how to set the policy and leave it alone, it would be way better for us as an industry.” He pointed out that the uncertainty is already having a significant impact, with the U.S. losing more than 8,000 manufacturing jobs and $10 billion in investment. He urged, “Let’s stop the bickering and work together and figure out how to do this going forward, to get the best thing to drive America’s old economy and new economy.”
Photo Courtesy Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA)
Timeliness remains one of the most significant challenges in the permitting process. Grace reminded the audience that the SunZia transmission line took 15 years and four presidencies to be approved, but that the general consensus is it typically takes about four years for generation projects and between seven and ten years for transmission projects. Rich Powell, CEO of the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA), agreed that in the midst of a global race to bring artificial intelligence online, “We as a country, we as an energy community, as a policymaking community, cannot allow, ‘We’ll connect you in seven years,’ to be the answer, and that that is going to require a fundamental rethink to how we permit both new generation and new transmission.”
Grace argued that it makes sense to institute a full-process timeline with start and finish points laid out upfront, especially “with rising demand, and if you need to increase energy output by 50% by 2035.” Malcolm Woolf, president and CEO of the National Hydropower Association, added that we can avoid unnecessary regulatory duplication: “When FERC has finished its NEPA review, that’s not the time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to start theirs. And when theirs is done, for California to start theirs.” This would require more coordination between the various agencies and the states, along with dispute resolution mechanisms for missing statutory deadlines. Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG), emphasized the importance of a single point of accountability at the federal level, rather than projects needing to obtain permission from multiple levels, including federal, state, and local. Such national jurisdiction would also prevent states from blocking lines that ultimately strengthen the country. Graham further vocalized the need for proper staffing and consistency among the states’ field offices; plus, “If you’re delayed and can’t build, move out of the way. Let’s move on and get those agencies and those people on the right projects that are going to move forward.” And then, regarding litigation, Grace added that there must be some type of reasonable limitation on its scope.
Photo Courtesy Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG)
Hayes offered several key insights on transmission development. She explained that the siting and permitting for generation is more straightforward because it is a single-site project. In contrast, transmission projects can stretch hundreds of miles: “We talk about building a grid bigger than the weather.” However, Hayes claimed that customers, developers, and utilities have all committed to “high-capacity transmission as the most cost-effective and reliable way to build out the grid,” working in collaboration rather than in silos. She pointed out, “It just doesn’t make sense to build new resources islanded. Rather, let’s take that new investment and put it into the grid broadly so we can upgrade it for the broader community,” with efficiencies of time bringing customer costs down. In fact, for every four-year delay in permitting, the estimated cost of a transmission line doubles. It is also essential to expedite permitting and construction of transmission lines to keep pace with China, which invests $85 billion per year in its transmission, dwarfing our $25 billion.
Suppose the U.S. does not expand its transmission. In that case, Hayes added, we will incur the economic damages and deaths associated with Winter Storm Uri, as Texas was only able to import limited power and therefore faced days of outages. Comparatively, the Midwest performed much better due to the capability of transferring between the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the PJM Interconnection.
Many participants in the discussion seemed optimistic about the prospects for permitting reform. In 2023, ACP CEO Jason Grumet testified before Congress in favor of a tech-neutral approach to permitting. Grace believes that a tech-neutral approach is now on the table: “I think everyone truly believes that to meet the rising energy demand, you need all the energy resources, and we shouldn’t be holding any back.” Powell added, “I think we have a real opportunity right now,” even though it is complicated. He described the ideal solution as being in the form of a “robustly bipartisan package in the House,” perhaps in next year’s highway bill. Plus, it does not need to be perfect right now: “I think we’re going to pass a permitting reform bill every Congress for the next ten, once we get this started.”
Woolfe, however, was quick to note the issues facing the hydro industry in particular, with only 3% of existing dams currently being used for energy generation, even though “you simply divert some water, run it through a turbine, bring that water back below the dam to the river, done. So no real environmental impact because the dams are needed for water storage and all these other purposes.” That being said, there is broad bipartisan support for this industry, having been spared from recent cuts and with President Trump expressing support on multiple occasions. Woolfe said they “would be thrilled if we could be the guinea pig and have a standalone bill that actually moved.”
Photo Courtesy National Hydropower Association
