How fight over states’ rights may upend permitting overhaul
Lawmakers hope they can revive permitting reform talks over the next three months, but they face fundamental political divides that have dogged environmental debates for decades.
The two parties don’t agree on what constitutes “permitting reform.” And like many squabbles in the nation, it comes down to a dispute over states’ rights — albeit from different perspectives.
Democrats want to give the federal government more power to bypass states and permit long-distance transmission lines, a prospect that doesn’t sit well with rural state Republicans.
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The way the law was set up, said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), is about “delegating authority.”
“California actually had a Clean Water Act before the United States did. We had the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act,” Huffman said.
“We have always done the heavy lifting on water quality and those parts of environmental policy, so the idea that California would want to have its full authority is not some new theory of states’ rights that I’ve thought up to counter Joe Manchin or anything like that. It’s the way it’s always worked.”
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By: Nick Sobczyk, Jeremy Dillon
Source: E&E News
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