Republican senators unveiled revamped legislation Thursday to fast-track the approval of new energy projects currently hamstrung by environmental hurdles, rivaling a similar measure from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III.

The GOP measure, led by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and John Barrasso of Wyoming, would take a more aggressive approach to boost domestic energy production of all forms and lower surging costs.

It would overhaul the permitting process in four ways: 

• Promote fossil fuels and renewables;

• Impose strict time limits on environmental reviews;

• Set legal shot clocks to stop protracted litigation that can tie up projects for years;

• Prevent the administration from cherry-picking clean energy projects over oil and natural gas.

“We’re not trying to skirt any environmental regulations, any review, anything that could be construed to be leaving open anybody to damaging our air, or water, or our land,” said Ms. Capito, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “But the length of time of this permitting is just excruciating.”

The approval process for energy projects — especially fossil fuels — takes years and can cost millions of dollars due to environmental lawsuits and bureaucratic delays.

“My biggest concern is energy that is affordable and is reliable. We need it all,” said Mr. Barrasso, ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, which is chaired by Mr. Manchin.

Congress has tried for the better part of a year to overhaul the energy permitting process. Republicans are eyeing the ongoing debt-limit fight or the budget process this summer to finally get it passed.

The bill from Ms. Capito and Mr. Barrasso faces long odds in the Democrat-led chamber, but they view it as a starting point for bipartisan negotiations.

Similar permitting proposals from Mr. Manchin and Senate Republicans failed last year over a lack of bipartisan support. Mr. Manchin’s plan was rejected several times by fellow Democrats. 

House Republicans passed a sprawling permitting measure last month dubbed H.R. 1. Mr. Manchin, who is Ms. Capito’s seatmate from West Virginia, reintroduced his own permitting legislation this week. House Democrats also entered the fray Thursday with their legislation centered on electricity infrastructure, renewables and giving local communities more input.

The White House, as it did last year, has endorsed Mr. Manchin’s proposal. It overlaps with Ms. Capito and Mr. Barrasso in several areas, such as time limits for legal challenges and environmental reviews, and greenlighting the $6 billion natural gas Mountain Valley Pipeline that is near completion in West Virginia but continues to suffer setbacks in court.

Democrats say that revamping the permitting process is vital to combating climate change and advancing clean energy projects in Democrats’ recent tax-and-climate-spending law.

“There is overwhelming bipartisan recognition that our current permitting processes aren’t working and equally bipartisan support for addressing it through comprehensive permitting reform legislation,” Mr. Manchin said.

But sticking points remain more broadly between the two parties.

Democrats primarily want to focus only on permitting clean energy power transmission rather than new fossil fuel projects. Democrats are also weary of amending the bedrock conservation law the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA.

Regulating interstate energy transmission, overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is also a thorny issue. Known as cost allocation, Mr. Manchin proposes giving FERC more authority to distribute costs from transmitting power across regions between utilities and grid jurisdictions because the energy is deemed a national public good.

“We oppose [cost allocation], states like Wyoming subsidizing the energy going to California electricity with the renewables that were being generated in Wyoming at wind farms,” Mr. Barrasso said.

Climate activists oppose new energy permitting rules, such as tightening legal deadlines and environmental reviews. They say it’s a scheme to weaken environmental protections.