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A RESOLUTION urging the United States Congress to enact much-needed reforms 1
to federal permitting policies to accelerate deployment of new energy infrastructure. 2
WHEREAS, abundant, resilient, and diversified domestic energy production in the 3
United States enhances American national security, economic competitiveness, and 4
energy independence; and 5
WHEREAS, environmental stewardship that keeps our air and water clean, protects 6
public health, ensures biodiversity and species protection, and conserves public lands is a 7
worthy goal that is important to achieve; and 8
WHEREAS, the excessively complex federal permitting and environmental review 9
processes that have built up around America’s environmental laws, including the 10
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, the National 11
Historic Preservation Act, Clean Water Act, and dozens of other federal requirements, 12
have grown to be so cumbersome that they often unnecessarily slow or prevent the 13
construction of essential new energy infrastructure and therefore discourage domestic 14
energy production without advancing the goals of these laws; and 15
WHEREAS, energy is produced in the United States at a much higher 16
environmental standard than is typically the case in the countries from which energy is 17
imported, so prevention of domestic energy production undermines environmental 18
stewardship; and 19
WHEREAS, delays caused by permitting inefficiencies inhibit the building of all of 20
the essential components of a low-cost, reliable, and modern energy infrastructure that is 21
needed to support economic competitiveness and domestic manufacturing, to enhance 22
reliability and prevent blackouts, to lower costs for consumers and businesses, and to 23
achieve the goals of America’s environmental laws; and 24
WHEREAS, after nearly two decades of flat electricity demand, demand for 25
electricity in the United States is projected to dramatically increase in the coming 26
decades, requiring major increases in domestic energy production and a more than 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 2017
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doubling of domestic electricity transmission grid capacity; and 1
WHEREAS, regulatory barriers today mean that more than 2,000 gigawatts of 2
energy production and storage, more than the entire current American electricity capacity 3
combined, are stuck in electricity interconnection queues and the average amount of time 4
to interconnect new energy resources has nearly doubled from about two years to nearly 5
four years; and 6
WHEREAS, the average time it takes to process an environmental impact statement 7
under the NEPA for major infrastructure projects has risen to an excessive length of four 8
and a half years; and 9
WHEREAS, the United States is highly reliant on China, and other countries that 10
do not share our interests, to mine and process critical minerals, with demand for some of 11
these minerals potentially growing by more than 40 times by 2040; and 12
WHEREAS, other developed nations that share our goals to protect the 13
environment while producing abundant energy resources, such as Canada and Australia, 14
have shown that they can permit new mines within two to three years instead of nearly 10 15
years, as is often the case in the United States; and 16
WHEREAS, both linear infrastructure, such as pipelines and transmission lines, as 17
well as energy generation infrastructure, each face extraordinary and indefensible delays 18
due to overlitigation, inappropriate blocking of nationally important projects by 19
unrepresentative and often radical groups that hold those projects hostage, and excessive 20
use of our court system to hamstring worthy projects; and 21
WHEREAS, major delays in projects caused by inefficient permitting or 22
overlitigation can dramatically increase costs and make projects less viable, costing 23
consumers, businesses, and taxpayers money and making our energy system less reliable; 24
and 25
WHEREAS, unnecessary permitting and regulatory delays also increase American 26
dependence on energy produced by foreign dictators and authoritarian regimes; and 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 2017
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WHEREAS, unnecessary permitting delays limit investments made in modernizing 1
our nation’s infrastructure that would result in a more efficient energy system with 2
reduced emissions and environmental impact; and 3
WHEREAS, overlapping federal permitting requirements lack the flexibility to 4
allow for efforts that reflect the spirit and intent of traditional environmental laws by 5
protecting human health and the environment instead of procedural compliance with 6
outdated regulations; and 7
WHEREAS, failure to reform federal permitting laws is already resulting in fewer 8
jobs, reduced security, and higher prices for Americans without providing additional 9
benefits for the environment; and 10
WHEREAS, failing to reform these laws in the coming months will result in even 11
greater limitations on our energy infrastructure, costing even more American jobs while 12
raising costs for consumers and businesses and leaving America vulnerable to 13
unreliability, blackouts, and the resulting severe harm to the American people; 14
NOW, THEREFORE, 15
Be it resolved by the Senate of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of 16
Kentucky: 17
Section 1. (1) The Senate urges federal legislators to work in good faith to 18
enact legislation that reforms federal permitting and environmental review processes to 19
promote economic and environmental stewardship by expediting the deployment of 20
modern energy infrastructure. These reforms should enable faster and lower-cost 21
construction of energy infrastructure of all kinds, without prejudice, including by: 22
(a) Considering steps to limit excessive use of judicial processes to slow projects 23
inappropriately; 24
(b) Preventing inappropriate usage of the Clean Water Act and other laws to 25
hamstring the lawful building of linear energy infrastructure, such as pipelines and 26
transmission lines; 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 2017
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(c) Enacting reforms to plan, permit, and pay for the necessary build-out of 1
electricity transmission infrastructure to support a more reliable energy grid that lowers 2
costs for consumers and businesses; and 3
(d) Enabling the domestic build-out of the full array of modern energy 4
technologies, including nuclear, emissions management, hydrogen, critical mineral 5
mining and processing, and all other needs for a modern energy system. 6
(2) The legislative reforms urged by this Resolution should also strive to ensure 7
accountability for federal agencies conducting permitting and environmental review 8
processes, including better data, more aggressive timelines, and permitting shot clocks. 9
Additionally, these legislative reforms must be accompanied by a redoubling of efforts to 10
streamline federal regulations to support the efficient building of new energy 11
infrastructure. Failure to act to update our federal permitting system to support building 12
new energy infrastructure will further harm consumers, workers, and businesses, while 13
making the United States less competitive and more vulnerable to both foreign 14
adversaries and domestic outages. Congress must act with urgency in the coming months 15
to fix our broken permitting system. 16
Section 2. The Clerk of the Senate is directed to transmit a copy of this 17
Resolution to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House 18
of Representatives, Governor Andy Beshear, Secretary of State Michael G. Adams, and 19
each member of the Kentucky congressional delegation. 20