Peace Garden News

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) questioned Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), about transmission siting at this year’s second Environment and Public Works (EPW) hearing on permitting reform. Excerpts and full video are below.

https://youtu.be/-wVeEuPtuTk

Before questioning, the Senator discussed the Biden administration’s illogical approach to energy policy and the regulatory headaches hampering permitting processes today. He referenced U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor’s March 2023 order directing the Bureau of Land Management to resume quarterly oil and gas lease sales in North Dakota.

“We have plenty of fossil fuel permits issued well into the future, yet we're waiving hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of prepared permit applications on federal lands in North Dakota – the cleanest oil in the world and produced the cleanest – even after a judge has ordered the administration to stop violating their law and do the required-by-law quarterly auctions on the federal lands. It’s incredible, the idea we're going to electrify everything with some new transmission. I sited lots of transmission lines when I was on the North Dakota Public Service Commission. I never had a hard time permitting a transmission line in North Dakota. Never did.” 

He then asked about environmental impact statements (EIS) and environmental assessments (EA). There has been debate over whether this reporting should be subject to “average” or “firm” timelines, as the more flexible option could disadvantage certain industries.

“Since CEQ oversees NEPA and their projects, and we had a lot of bipartisan discussion about the process and the timelines, do you think timelines can be an enforceable thing? In other words, whether it's the two-year EIS or one-year EA, how would we enforce that, and do you worry it could be gamed by the favored fuel, whichever fuel that might be?” asked Senator Cramer.

“We need to have agencies focus on what is possible on a particular project so that you have ambitious timelines. And that you set those timelines in ways which allow the agencies to take into account what the requirements on that project are, or what the specifics of that area are, but that you use that as a driving force behind their behavior. Then, the accountability measures come through the oversight, the interaction we have with the leadership of the agencies, making sure they're staying on track and that we have the ability to respond when they need additional resources or when we need to have agencies share in the interagency process to work more effectively,” responded Chair Mallory.

Senator Cramer added, “I sited the original Keystone pipeline – 600 landowners and not one inch of that land was taken. It was amazing, I don't know that we could do it today. But even gathering lines on federal lands, we found a way to streamline the process through the interagency process with adding environmental protections. There was even more review because there was a synergy of all the agencies working at the same time; rather than in chronological order, they were working collaboratively. Whatever side of the issue you're on, that seems like a win-win. We need to get to that. I don't know that another Council in the process actually helps a lot.”

The Senator concluded by asking how court decisions like Chevron v. NRDC or West Virginia v. EPA influence the way agencies operate: “In terms of agencies taking authorities that aren't granted to them, do you watch that more carefully now that the Court has said ‘No, listen, the absence of a prohibition is not a license to create power for yourselves?’”

“When the Supreme Court rules on an environmental policy, we take that very seriously and organize ourselves with that in mind,” responded Chair Mallory. 

Original source can be found here.