Senator Joe Manchin's Useful, but Stalled, Interstate Energy Permitting Reform

Abstract

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin spent much of 2022 pursuing an energy siting and permitting reform bill—“Building America's Energy Security Act of 2022”—that aimed to accelerate permitting of all types of American energy infrastructure to promote energy security and climate objectives, without bypassing environmental laws or state and local input. At the same time, 2022 saw actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), in the form of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPRs), that muddied permitting for both useful natural gas pipelines and electricity transmission projects in different ways, as I previously wrote about in this column in July and September, 2022. Manchin was not successful in inserting his permitting reform bill into President Biden's $1.7 trillion federal spending bill signed on December 29, 2022. But as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he expressed his displeasure with FERC—effectively sacking then FERC Chair Richard Glick by failing to hold a hearing on his nomination by President Biden for a second term.