Dive Brief:
- Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Democratic caucus told Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during his Wednesday appearance at a hearing that their party will continue to obstruct bipartisan permitting reform if his department continues to “slow walk” permits for renewable energy projects.
- “If you want members of my caucus to support permitting reform, we have to know that balls and strikes are going to be called, that there is not a thumb on the scale of this system,” ranking member Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., told Burgum. “That confidence does not exist right now.”
- Heinrich pointed to an April 21 decision from U.S. District Judge Denise Casper of the District of Massachusetts which granted a preliminary injunction filed by several regional clean energy organizations, seeking relief from federal decisions to pause permitting or establish additional levels of review for solar and wind projects.
Dive Insight:
“Will you comply with that judge's order?” Heinrich asked Burgum.
Burgum said the administration “[disagrees] vehemently” with the judge’s view of the case, saying the projects faced appropriate review, but Heinrich emphasized that the judge had used the phrase “slow-walked.”
“The solicitor's department will respond to any active litigation,” Burgum said. “But as I said, we disagree. We disagree with this.”
Heinrich, along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, ended permitting reform discussions in December after the Trump administration ordered work to halt on all offshore wind farms under construction — an action which has since been overturned in federal court.
During a Jan. 28 permitting reform hearing, Whitehouse said it made “no sense” to pass bipartisan permitting reform legislation without a commitment from the executive branch to stop its attempts to halt renewable energy development.
Burgum told Heinrich on Wednesday that he would be “thrilled” if there were “unanimity” about the executive branch not putting its thumb on the scale regarding energy projects, as he felt the Biden administration had done so.
“Both sides are likely to say, their side had the thumb on the scale here,” Heinrich said. “Let's make this a system where you can't do that.”
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democratic party, told Burgum that in the current political climate, it would be “foolish” to pass permitting reform “that allowed fossil projects to move with more alacrity through the system, and theoretically would allow renewable projects, only to end on your desk or on somebody else's desk or with some kind of action by another agency.”
“I want you to understand I'm in favor of permitting reform,” King said, “but not until this administration stops the role that you've been playing thus far. And I understand about the prior administration, that's a good argument for quitting this arrangement where one administration says no to certain forms of energy and the other says no to the other. We've got to stop that and make the permitting process neutral, fact-based, consistent and predictable. Do you understand?”
Burgum said that he did.
“I appreciate that, and I think that we can make some progress on permitting reform, but again, I can assure you there won't be the votes unless we can have some assurance,” King said. “And it would really help if you would move those permits that are sitting on your desk.”
Burgum also faced questions about the Trump administration’s proposal to merge the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement into a single new agency, the Marine Minerals Administration. BOEM and BSEE were previously together under the Minerals Management Service, and were split in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said the change “[returns] us to a clearly inadequate regulatory structure.” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., said she thinks the recombination is “such a smart idea” but asked Burgum how the safety of the offshore oil and gas workforce will be ensured.
To each senator, Burgum said that the two agencies are “often co-located” and that combining the two will allow for additional efficiency and an increased amount of safety inspections.
