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The House Natural Resources Committee is marking up legislation tomorrow that would bring much-needed reform to the National Environmental Policy Act (POLITICO Pro’s E&E News, subscription).

What’s going on: The NAM-backed Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act “would narrow the scope of environmental scrutiny of projects and limit litigation.”

• Sponsored by Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), the bill aims to simplify the judicial review process for projects, including by capping the number of days during which lawsuits against those projects may be filed. It also aligns the NEPA statute with recent Supreme Court precedent that limits the scope of NEPA reviews so that agencies cannot consider speculative, cumulative or non-proximate project effects.
• Additional House Democrats have cosponsored the bill, and the updated version includes compromise language that “[p]revents political interference in NEPA reviews by stopping a federal agency from withdrawing an environmental document for an action when there is an applicant, unless a court order is issued,” as a summary of the new text reads.

Why it’s important: NEPA-driven delays, onerous regulations and years-long litigation under the federal statute stall the building of vitally important energy infrastructure and manufacturing projects and create enormous, unnecessary costs that put future investment at risk, the NAM has long said.

• The SPEED Act would go a long way toward cutting the red tape that holds back these crucial projects and ending the frivolous, expensive litigation that inevitably accompanies efforts to get new sources of energy online.

Our view: “Manufacturers have strongly supported the commonsense, bipartisan SPEED Act,” NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen said. “NEPA reform is a critical component of broader permitting reform, which is essential for meeting our current and future power needs, outcompeting China and remaining the world’s energy leader. Our members need permitting clarity and guardrails to invest and grow in America.”