Congressional leaders finalized a deal Tuesday to extend government funding, approve more than $100 billion in disaster aid and advance a slew of bipartisan priorities that had been awaiting action for months. The stopgap funding measure, if approved this week as expected, will kick Friday night’s funding deadline to March 14, buying congressional appropriators nearly...
We Don’t Need This Much Permitting
America’s process for permitting infrastructure is a convoluted mess of federal, state, and local procedures, regulations, bureaucracies, lawsuits, judges, activists, and landowners. “Getting approval from all of them, getting every single box checked, is the biggest hang-up to getting projects up and running,” says Cary Davis of the American Association of Port Authorities in a video making...
EPA will grant California the right to ban sales of new gas cars by 2035
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to grant California permission to set stronger climate rules for cars and SUVs — a move that President-elect Donald Trump could attempt to reverse — according to two people briefed on the matter. The EPA intends to issue California a waiver as soon as next week to enforce its rule aimed at banning...
Permitting Reform: A Strategic Imperative for U.S. National Security and Global Competitiveness
Permitting reform has swiftly risen to the forefront in Washington as a pressing national security priority. The United States is grappling with the dual challenges of escalating energy demand and mounting global competition, particularly from China. Despite the critical role of our nation’s energy infrastructure, the U.S. is ensnared in a permitting process that can...
Low-Energy Fridays: The Intersection of Trade and Energy Policy
The Biden administration recently set new tariffs on photovoltaic solar panels imported from Southeast Asia. Always a thorny issue, trade policy is expected to be especially controversial in 2025. Therefore, it’s worth understanding when tariffs might be appropriate and when they might carry more cost than benefit. The solar panel import issue is challenging because it isn’t...
U.S. Department of Energy invests $17M to shore up Americas energy security with robust supply chain for critical materials
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced an investment of $17 million across 14 projects that will accelerate critical materials innovation while promoting safe, sustainable, economic, and efficient solutions to meet current and future supply chain needs. The projects, which span 11 states, are strengthening and streamlining manufacturing for high-impact components and technologies such...
Permitting Reform 1.0 Shouldn’t Wait Until the New Year
On Election Day, the American people gave the Republican Party a mandate to chart a new path forward on complex issues facing our country, not the least of which is energy. The good news, though, is we don’t have to wait until January to make progress. Passing legislation on permitting reform before the end of...
SCOTUS hears arguments in case that could reshape environmental law
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on a case that could reshape a key environmental law and determine the future of an oil railway project in the west. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to conduct a review of environmental impacts before making any decisions and then issue a “detailed statement” of the review. SCOTUS...
FERC rejects plan to shift PJM’s transmission planning protocol in win for state regulators
Concerned about a loss of regional transmission organization independence, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday rejected proposals that would have given PJM Interconnection transmission owners more control over the grid operator’s transmission planning process. “We are concerned that these provisions violate the Commission’s independence requirement by providing a single stakeholder group, specifically, the PJM [transmission owners,]...
USDA must do more to regulate genetically modified crops, judge rules
The court’s ruling reverses an effort by the Trump administration to overhaul regulation of biotechnology products with the goal of streamlining the review process to accelerate innovation in agriculture. The changes meant that genetically modified crops would be subject to regulation if they’re deemed to be “noxious weeds,” which is determined based on traits from...