Democrats want to back Westerman's permitting push — with a catch

President Donald Trump's attacks on renewable energy projects are making it more difficult for lawmakers to pass a bipartisan permitting reform bill.

September 10, 2025

Democrats expressed support Wednesday for easing federal environmental reviews to make it easier to build new energy projects, but said they won’t agree to a permitting reform deal with Republicans unless President Donald Trump stops his attacks on renewables.

Tensions between the parties were apparent at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Wednesday to review bipartisan permitting legislation to limit the scope of environmental reviews and impose restrictions on lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act.

“I want to get to ‘yes’ on this bill. We need to make it easier to build in this country again,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), who has criticized a Trump administration order halting construction of the nearly complete Revolution Wind offshore wind project in his district.

“But we are having this conversation in an abnormal time when the Trump administration is unilaterally and most likely illegally stopping clean energy projects,” Magaziner added. “We can't ignore the broader context.”

Several other Democrats on the committee echoed those sentiments, even as they praised Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) for looking to take a “technology neutral” approach to streamlining NEPA reviews through his “SPEED Act,” which has three Democratic co-sponsors led by centrist Democrat Rep. Jared Golden of Maine. And Democrats said they doubted that the Trump administration would implement permitting legislation fairly and instead would try to add new obstacles for solar and wind developers to obtain permits.

“Republicans claim they want to move projects forward and bring more energy to the American people while an entire industry is being shut down,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee.

Westerman told POLITICO his goal with the bill is to “keep it technology- and project-neutral to create a transparent and fair process.” And he hopes it will jump start efforts to negotiate comprehensive permitting reform with the Senate this fall that also would include measures to boost interstate transmission lines and pipeline approvals.

In the hearing, he argued the bill would protect against the “ping-pong effect” in which policies shift dramatically depending on the party in power.

“We [Republicans] were angry last Congress,” he said, when the Biden administration killed the Keystone XL pipeline and put long pauses on fossil fuel leasing. “And now we’ve heard colleagues across the aisle upset," Westerman said. "Reforming NEPA will provide certainty for all aspects of the economy and will allow the free market to make decisions.”

Ahead of the hearing, several lobby groups across the energy and business spectrum issued supportive statements for the SPEED Act, including the American Clean Power Association, Edison Electric Institute, Clean Energy Buyers Association, Data Center Coalition, American Petroleum Institute, National Mining Association, National Ocean Industries Association, and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.


By:  Josh Siegel
Source: Politico Pro