Input Stories

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule to limit states’ veto powers over energy projects under the Clean Water Act, incorporating key elements the NAM submitted to the agency last year (POLITICO’s GREENWIRE).

What’s going on: On Tuesday, the EPA issued a proposal “target[ing] Section 401 of the law, which authorizes states and tribes to assess pollution risks from pipelines, hydropower dams and other major infrastructure before they can be approved by a federal agency.”

• The move—which follows one the agency made in November to modernize the definition of “waters of the United States,” which the NAM provided substantive comments on—“would maximize efficiency and eliminate delays in Clean Water Act permitting to unleash energy dominance and strengthen the economy,” EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer told reporters, according to GREENWIRE.
• The proposal also comes a month after the House passed the PERMIT Act, which incorporated key NAM recommendations for modernizing the CWA.

What it does: The CWA requires states and tribes to certify large infrastructure projects “by issuing, denying or waiving the right to issue a water quality certification” (POLITICO’s E&E Daily, subscription).

• The EPA’s proposed action would stop states from imposing energy-project conditions to protect waters that aren’t “waters of the United States” under the CWA.
• Additionally, the proposal would “limit the review to only a project’s potential to ‘discharge’ pollutants into waters of the U.S.,” and not the entire scope of a project.
• And it “would prohibit states from asking companies to withdraw and resubmit a permit application, to ensure the certification process does not exceed one year,” E&E Daily reports.

The response: Republican lawmakers lauded the proposed changes.

• “I commend [EPA] Administrator [Lee] Zeldin’s work to expedite critical infrastructure development and help America build faster,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said in a press release, according to E&E Daily.

Yes, but permitting reform … GOP leaders said that the proposal would help speed permitting, but they maintained the need for separate, comprehensive permitting reform legislation.

• “We want to make durable changes to the law to ensure the certification process is focused on water quality—not other extraneous issues that are not under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act,” Justin Harclerode, a spokesperson for Republicans on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told E&E Daily via email on Tuesday.