May 1, 2024 – Citizens’ Climate Lobby is encouraged to see the new permitting reform rule announced this week from the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The rule implements permitting reform measures Congress passed in last year’s debt ceiling deal.
Notably, the rule directs federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change in their environmental reviews of energy projects, and it encourages them to identify reasonable alternatives that will mitigate climate impacts. In other words: climate considerations will now be baked into the federal permitting process. That is a crystal clear win for the climate.
The rule takes several steps to make the federal permitting process more efficient, such as establishing a lead agency when permitting projects that involve multiple agencies, setting page limits for environmental reviews, and specifying clear timelines for those reviews. The rule also adds new provisions to help upgrade existing transmission capability. Plus, it ensures earlier and more meaningful community involvement in the federal permitting process. These are all topics CCL volunteers and staff have raised with Congress in our meetings and outreach around permitting reform, so we are glad to see them addressed to some extent in this rule.
Even with this rule in place, it’s clear that Congress can and should do more to ensure we can build enough clean energy infrastructure in time to meet our climate goals. Our volunteers and staff remain committed to working with Republican and Democratic congressional offices on bipartisan permitting reform legislation that boosts clean energy and cuts climate pollution.
CONTACT: Flannery Winchester, CCL Senior Director of Communications, 615-337-3642, [email protected]
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Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organizationfocused on national policies to address climate change. Learn more at citizensclimatelobby.org.
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