The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association joined investor-owned utilities in urging Congress to streamline permitting of new transmission, backing a bill that would limit National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews to two years.

The House Committee on Natural Resources is holding a hearing Feb. 28 on the “Building United States Infrastructure through Limited Delays and Efficient Reviews Act” (BUILDER Act) of 2023, which has been introduced by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.)

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson told reporters Thursday that his group, which represents almost 900 cooperatives serving 42 million people, sees an urgent need for infrastructure to connect renewables and serve new demand, such as electric vehicles.

“We’re concerned that increasing stresses on an aging set of infrastructure is going to create problematic circumstances in terms of reliability,” Matheson said. “So that’s why we’re really interested in this permitting conversation.”

On Feb. 22, the Edison Electric Institute also urged Congress to act on permitting, although the group did not endorse any legislative proposals. (See EEI Welcomes ‘Clean Slate’ on Permitting.)

Changes to permitting law have been debated for years, with earlier versions of Graves’ bill and other legislation having been floated in previous Congresses. Matheson noted that this time around a wide array of energy industry interests have lined up behind the need to change permitting laws.

“I do think that this is an interesting point in time where I hope there’s an opportunity to have a meaningful, substantive discussion and see action take place that really does move the needle on the permitting process,” Matheson said. “I think that would be in all of our interest in terms of making sure we have a reliable grid as we electrify this economy in significant ways.”

Matheson said firm time limits that allow regulators to do their jobs without leaving projects stuck in limbo are needed. NRECA said the BUILDER Act would permit a project sponsor to assist agencies in conducting environmental reviews to help speed up the process and resolve issues.

Two NRECA members described how their efforts to upgrade their grids and connect new sources of power have been slowed down by the existing permitting process.

Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative has been replacing coal power with renewables and other cleaner sources, going from 95% coal in 2005 to 50% today with renewables set to make up 40% of its supplies by 2035, said CEO Brent Ridge. The coop is one of the developers of the proposed Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line from Dubuque, Iowa, to Madison, Wisconsin, to bring renewables from the resource-rich state to the biggest cities in Wisconsin.

The NEPA review process went through on time, but the project has been tied up in “unneeded litigation,” Ridge said.

The BUILDER Act would “really help provide certainty for infrastructure projects that have successfully completed the NEPA process as this project has,” he said.

North Dakota’s McKenzie Electric Cooperative deals mainly with two federal agencies that use NEPA to review infrastructure: the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Forest Service. McKenzie CEO Matt Hanson said the co-op has 44 pending applications with BIA that need to be processed so it can serve new customers on a reservation — the oldest of which goes back to 2017.

“What do those delays in processing permits cause?” Hanson said. “Well, the first off is it prevents economic development on the reservation. Second, it impacts the environment. So, the delays in getting the permits processed means that our end consumers, most of the time, are running off generators until line power comes and connects them.”

Delays also add to the costs of projects, which are passed onto consumers under the co-op’s business model, he added.

While the BUILDER Act is set for a hearing before February ends, the new Congress just took power in early January and has gotten off to a fairly slow start, said Matheson. But other committee leaders in both the House and Senate and in both parties have discussed the permitting issue.

“There’s a lot of conversation,” Matheson said. “I do think it’s across the political spectrum as well, and we hope that we build some momentum going forward. But I don’t want to oversell you on this. I don’t have a specific prediction by congressional leaders about ‘we’re going to work on this bill by this timeframe.’”