The “Inflation Reduction Act” was passed recently by Congress after lengthy negotiations with the prime Democratic Senate holdout, West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin. The bill package won his approval, and therefore guaranteed passage, on the promise that crucial and substantive reforms to the system for issuing federal permits for infrastructure – including critical energy development projects – would be undertaken. It is now incumbent on Congress and the White House to make good on that promise.

The deal struck required that comprehensive permitting reform legislation would be passed by the end of this fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. Though the Senate is set to vote on a measure that includes at least some permitting reform this week, its passage is in question. In fact, some key members of Congress are actually now actively trying to back pedal. They are insisting that any permitting reform package be significantly watered down, to the point of being meaningless, and offered as a stand-alone bill rather than incorporated in must-pass legislation, jeopardizing its prospects for passage altogether. 

Congress needs to address and hopefully improve the current lengthy and expensive federal permitting process. The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) has evolved into a bureaucratic nightmare and has not been updated since its inception in the 1970s. Permitting delays have resulted in critical energy and other infrastructure projects held up for years by red tape. Some entities use NEPA to tangle a project in legal morass which often delays or even halts projects that have been desperately needed for many years.

The energy industry is particularly impacted by permitting challenges and delays. Almost every American has felt the economic pain of constricted energy resources during the past year. Though gasoline is down from its historic highs of a few months ago, the average price per-gallon remains at an egregious $3.75 here in Colorado. There are signs that it will soon climb back up again as we head into the winter months. The energy industry contributes more than $46 billion annually to the Centennial State’s GDP and supports 340,000 jobs. Given this time of economic uncertainty and high inflation, streamlining permitting is desperately needed. 

Not all of these problems are directly due to domestic policies. The War in Ukraine and its fallout, including Russian threats to cut off Western Europe’s supply of natural gas going into the brutal winter months, is creating a global energy crisis. Many experts say it could be the most serious we have seen in decades, or ever. There is little that American lawmakers can do to directly influence such global events. 

But the problem has been amplified here at home because of counterproductive energy policies. The economy is making movement toward increasing the contribution of renewable energy sources, but the simple reality is that those sources have natural limitations, meaning that the majority of our electricity is still generated from traditional energy sources, predominantly natural gas, and will be for the foreseeable future. 

NEPA is the federal instrument that requires agencies to conduct environmental reviews and impact statements before any approval of a project or lease can be granted. Though it is critical that environmental impacts be identified and addressed, the preparation of environmental assessments and Environmental Impact Statements has turned into a very costly multi-year process. The problem is getting worse as just about every year more requirements are added onto the already burdensome catalogue of items that need to be considered. 

A 2018 study by the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ), which administers NEPA, found that review times have more than doubled since the act was signed by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. It also found fully a quarter of all reviews took more than six years to complete. Furthermore, the NEPA requirements often serve as a catalyst for special-interest groups to file lawsuits, hoping to terminally delay critical projects, even if a permit is lawfully granted. Far more often than not, these lawsuits succeed in doing just that, effectively making public policy through activist litigation.

Reforms to streamline this process are long overdue, to help expedite crucial energy projects while still protecting our environment. Sen. Manchin outlined a number of common-sense, necessary reforms when he agreed to support the IRA. His colleagues in Congress, for the sake of the American people, must now hold up their end of the bargain. 

Kathleen Curry is the former speaker pro tempore of the Colorado House of Representatives, and former Chairwoman of the House Agricultural Committee. She served as state representative for House District 61 from 2004 to 2010.