Why lawmakers want to save snot otters
Congress may be out this week, but Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Sean Casten (D-Ill.) are busy drafting a counterproposal to House Republicans’ plan to speed up the permitting process for energy projects.
Their forthcoming bill, dubbed the Clean Electricity Transmission Acceleration Act, seeks to accelerate the permitting process for renewable energy projects and the transmission lines needed to carry clean electricity nationwide.
It’s a direct response to H.R. 1, the GOP energy package that the House passed last week along largely party lines. The package included permitting legislation from Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) that many Democrats opposed, saying it would undermine the National Environmental Policy Act and do little to help clean energy.
“It’s clear that H.R. 1 was designed to really just be a laundry list for the fossil fuel industry,” Levin said in a phone interview with The Climate 202. “But there are legitimate challenges around the deployment of clean energy that we’ve got to address.”
The Levin-Casten proposal would give new authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to site transmission lines that are in the “national interest.” It also would require FERC to “ensure that electric utilities account for the external cost of greenhouse gas emissions when setting their utility rates,” among other things.
Levin said he has solicited feedback from fellow members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, while Casten has discussed the measure with fellow members of the moderate New Democrat Coalition. The goal is to introduce the legislation after the two-week recess.
By: Maxine Joselow
Source: The Washington Post