The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has advanced a bipartisan permitting reform package aimed at bolstering American energy security. The committee voted 15-4 on Wednesday to move forward with the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, S. 4753. This bill, introduced on July 23 by U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY), seeks to accelerate the permitting process for critical energy and mineral projects in the United States.
Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, emphasized the significance of the legislation for accelerating permitting processes essential to American energy security and emission reductions.
“This is everything that’s needed in this country to make sure that we’re able to deliver dependable, reliable and affordable energy in the cleanest fashion possible, realizing that we have to have dispatchable power now, but also realize that we’re investing and we have to bring forward the transmission to basically move those electrons in the cleanest fashion with renewables. So we’re doing everything we can to have a balanced approach,” Manchin stated.
Barrasso highlighted that the bill includes targeted reforms within the committee’s jurisdiction designed not only to boost U.S. energy and mineral production but also to help lower costs for Americans.
“It will strengthen our economic and national security and the security of our allies around the world,” Barrasso remarked before the bill's markup. “Our bill will guarantee future access to oil and natural gas resources on federal lands and waters. It will permanently end President Biden’s reckless ban on new liquefied natural gas exports. It will fix the disastrous Rosemont decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
“And it will ensure that new transmission lines meaningfully improve electric reliability and actually benefit customers,” Barrasso added. “Our bill includes a series of reforms for onshore oil and gas leasing and permitting.”
The bill now advances to the full Senate for further action.