WASHINGTON (WV News) — Following several failed attempts in recent years, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she’s feeling bullish about the prospect of finally seeing the permitting process for federal energy projects reformed.

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which was supported by West Virginia Republican Reps. Carol Miller and Alex Mooney.

The legislation seeks to overhaul the permitting process for all energy projects requiring regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but specifically seeks to see the completion of the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline Project.

“We do not have a permitting process that works for any kind of energy development,” said Capito during her weekly press briefing. “It takes way too long to permit — seven to 10 years. Many times investors leave the projects, and they don’t get built.”

She plans to help shepherd the aspects of the bill specific to permitting reform through the Senate committee process, Capito said.

“I’m going to take the permitting part and try to work it through the U.S. Senate,” she said. “I think we get that same, united Senate, across party lines, to be able to join together to be able to do permitting perform.”

The version of the bill that passed the House would require any project that was granted authorization from FERC prior to Jan. 1, 2018, to be constructed “expeditiously in the location and form specified in such certificate of public convenience and necessity.”

The amendment also says any project that has been issued such a certificate of public convenience and necessity from FERC would not be subject to further legal review, including any pending actions.

It would also make it so the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia would have original jurisdiction over any claim challenging the amendment.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline project, planned to run approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, has faced numerous challenges and setbacks since it was initially announced in 2014.

“What’s one thing presidents Obama, Trump and Biden agree on? They all wanted the Mountain Valley Pipeline completed,” Rep. Miller said in a statement. “The American people are depending on domestic energy production so energy prices will finally go down.”

Although previous efforts backed by Capito and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to advance permitting reform have stalled, this time may prove to be different, Capito said.

“I think there is an appetite for permitting reform, and it’s growing every day,” she said. “We’re already in preliminary conversations with Republicans and Democrats on this.”

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources plans to hold a hearing focused on the need for permitting reform at the end of April, Capito said.

“We’ve never had a permitting hearing since I’ve been here,” she said. “I think the wheels are rolling here, but we’ve got to have buy-in from everybody. That’s what we didn’t have before.”