ICYMI: Bechtel CEO, Members of Congress Say Permitting Reform Is Needed Now

Last week, Business Roundtable partnered with Axios to convene an event in Washington, DC, on “The Prospects for Permitting Reform.” The forum brought together business leaders and policymakers for one-on-one conversations on the urgent need for bipartisan permitting reform. Speakers included Bechtel CEO Brendan Bechtel, Chair of the Business Roundtable Smart Regulation Committee, Representative Julie Fedorchak (R-ND), and Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).

Discussions focused on how federal permitting legislation can help expedite review timelines, create certainty, and accelerate investment and domestic energy production.

Here’s what they said:

On the urgent need for bipartisan permitting reform:

• Bechtel: “If we want to unleash jobs, the economy and growth, then we really need bipartisan leadership from Congress in addition to the executive actions that the President and the Administration are putting out because we need these permanent [permitting] reforms codified and durable across Administrations.”
• Rep. Fedorchak: “I sense that there’s a significant understanding amongst both Democrats and Republicans that the need right now is pretty serious. We have to get this done. We really need new power resources. We really need to expand our grid.”

On how legislation can help streamline the cumbersome federal permitting process:  

• Bechtel: “There’s sort of four key reforms that need to happen. … We need to eliminate redundancy in the process. We need to enforce deadlines. We need to modernize the process. And we need to reform litigation.”
• Rep. Fedorchak: “When you look at permitting reform … there’s NEPA, there’s the Clean Water Act — those are the two big buckets of environmental review processes that hinder development of every resource, whether it’s wind, solar, pipelines or power lines. They’re all impacted. So, streamlining those processes, creating more certainty, limiting timelines, addressing the judicial review processes … takes significant strides forward.” 
• Sen. Hickenlooper: “We have always zealously protected the environment and within permitting reform, I think what we’re talking about is not in any way diminishing or diluting the environmental protections we have in place, but what we’re suggesting is that we can look at those risks, assess them, make sure there’s full transparency.”

On how permitting reform can enhance domestic energy production:

• Rep. Fedorchak: “The biggest thing in the energy sector, I think, is sending the right signals. And those drive investment decisions. They also drive costs and affordability, and those are all big issues.”
• Sen. Hickenlooper: “Whether it’s fossil-related or whether it’s renewable, we’ve got two real directives from the American people. Cost matters. We’ve got to make sure that we get that electricity at the lowest possible cost and we want it as clean as possible.”
• Sen. Schatz: “We have to remember that permitting reform is for the purpose of getting more electricity online, for the construction, transmission and distribution of electrons.”

Watch Bechtel’s remarks here.

Ready. Set. Let’s build the infrastructure of today and tomorrow.

Learn more about Business Roundtable’s permitting reform priorities here.