As Congress Takes a New Swing at Bipartisan Permitting Reform,

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this summer underscored deep partisan divides on energy and the environment, with critics decrying it as a handout to fossil fuel interests while President Donald Trump’s supporters heralded it for securing America’s “energy dominance.”

Given the tumult over the bill’s passage, one could be forgiven for assuming that congressional Democrats would balk at working with their Republican colleagues on the GOP’s upcoming priorities.

But that’s exactly what some legislators—and key voices in the energy industry—are trying to do following the summer recess.

Their focus in the coming weeks is permitting reform, a variety of proposals to speed up the process of approving and building major infrastructure and energy projects across the nation, such as wind and solar farms, power transmission lines and fossil fuel pipelines.

The process for those approvals can stretch on for years, significantly delaying the rollout of new energy projects. According to a 2024 fact sheet from the American Clean Power Association (ACP), it currently takes an average of 4.5 years for an energy project to get the required permits needed to build, and 7.5 years for a transmission project.

Those delays impact green energy and fossil fuel industries alike, according to Xan Fishman, vice president of the Energy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“The process is neither good for businesses in the economy, nor is it good for the environment, because in order to achieve good environmental outcomes, we actually do need to build,” Fishman said.

Frank Maisano, senior principal at the lobbying firm Bracewell, echoed that sentiment.

“Whether it’s a gas pipeline, whether it’s a natural gas combined cycle plant, whether it’s a transmission line, whether it’s a solar or a wind project, it’s absurd that you should have to spend that long trying to get a permit so that you can produce power for people at a time when we need every electron we can find or get,” Maisano said.

Now, as permitting reform comes back on the agenda, an alliance of strange bedfellows is pushing more lawmakers to tackle the issue.

When Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and then-Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act in 2024, both ACP and the American Petroleum Institute (API)—trade associations for the renewable industry and oil and gas industry, respectively—endorsed the bill as a welcome step toward meeting the growing demand for electricity and strengthening American energy security.

That bill never received a floor vote in the Senate, but there now appears to be renewed interest from the energy sector and legislators to try again.

The most significant bipartisan effort currently before Congress is the SPEED Act, introduced by Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and committee member Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine).

The…