Permitting hearing showcases opportunities — and obstacles

Democrats panned legislation to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act but didn’t close the door to changes.

September 11, 2025

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee made clear Wednesday that the Trump administration’s efforts to thwart solar energy and offshore wind projects and downsize the federal workforce may get in the way of any permitting deal.

Their comments came during a highly anticipated hearing on several bills to address permitting concerns, including a bipartisan proposal sponsored by Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act.

For years, lawmakers have been looking for the right mix of concessions to secure a permitting deal both sides claim to want. The administration's posture has only complicated the formulations.

“We have to keep the important context of this moment during negotiations,” said first-term Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), criticizing the Trump administration’s recent actions to halt the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island.

Nevertheless, Elfreth and other Democrats expressed willingness to try to negotiate on the issue, including by possibly cracking open NEPA, the 1969 environmental law that dictates how the government scrutinizes major energy and infrastructure projects.

"I’m not going to pretend a law that passed decades before I was born is perfect," she said. “At the same time, we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, and we have to work together on this."

Westerman appeared eager to advance his H.R. 4776, the “Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act," co-sponsored by moderate Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine).

That bill, which took up the bulk of Wednesday’s discussion, would narrow the scope of federal environmental reviews and restrict litigation.

Westerman said Congress often funds projects across the country “that are celebrated in DC” but afterward get stuck in red tape “because Congress has shied away from permitting reform."

Ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a progressive, argued the "SPEED Act" would take a “sledgehammer” to “core NEPA functions” and would move the government in the wrong direction entirely.

He and other critics took exception to the bill's limits of public input. While Huffman said he supported the idea of streamlining approvals, he argued the Westerman-Golden plan would muddy the waters for federal agencies involved in the process.

“This bill as its structured kind of balkanizes that,” he said. “It tells different agencies that they can’t participate in the process, and it seems to me that’s going in the opposite direction of where we want to go if we really want these things to move.”

Westerman said said the legislation would be open to changes. “That’s why we have hearings,” he said.

Huffman also said federal agencies need adequate staff to complete permits on time. He said the federal government was making progress during the Biden administration because of an influx of $1 billion in Inflation Reduction Act, but Republicans have rescinded much of the unspent money.

On policy, Huffman and Westerman are almost always far apart, but in person, the two mild-mannered men often share lighthearted exchanges.

For instance, when Huffman entered into the congressional record 26 letters from environmental organizations opposing the legislation, Westerman replied: “I’ll see your 26 and ask unanimous consent to add over 100 letters of support for the 'SPEED Act.'”

Huffman did seem to support two other bills on the agenda. Those included H.R. 573, the "Studying NEPA’s Impact on Projects Act," from Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.), and H.R. 4503, the “ePermit Act,” from Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.).

Lawmakers have already made several tweaks to permitting over the years. Still elusive is a grand bargain to settle the issue for now.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act to said the debt ceiling made some modest NEPA changes. Lawmakers also created a federal permitting agency to ease approval for certain projects.

More recently, the Supreme Court has moved to narrow NEPA's scope and the Trump administration is implementing part of the Republican wish list by executive order.

Still, Republicans on Wednesday said there was plenty of room for Congress to make the process clearer for agencies. And Democrats still want transmission upgrades and other initiatives to boost renewable energy.

Huffman made the point of asking Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, to say which form of energy is the fastest to get online to power data centers. Levi said solar energy, given the current shortage in gas turbines.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) said, “This is a normal conversation to be having. But we are having this normal conversation in an abnormal time — a time when the Trump administration is unilaterally and most likely illegally canceling and stopping clean energy projects, including a very important project in my district."


By:  Kelsey Brugger
Source: Politico E&E Daily