To watch Chairman Capito’s questions, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, led a hearing on improving federal environmental review and permitting processes.

During the hearing, Chairman Capito questioned a panel of leaders from different industries and organizations about challenges they’ve faced while trying to implement projects important to American economic growth. In particular, Chairman Capito focused on the need to craft legislation that creates efficient and reliable timelines for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and permitting processes and addresses endless legal challenges for projects. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

AGREEMENT ON CHANGES TO ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:

Chairman Capito:

“Both Republican and Democrat administrations over the last couple decades have recognized the need to address the environmental review process, and those administration have taken efforts, through changes to regulations and guidance, to do so. Despite these efforts, federal environmental review and permitting challenges persist…I would like to ask each of you, do you agree that Congress must come together to develop a bipartisan bill to tackle these challenging issues?”

Jeremy Harrell, CEO, ClearPath:

“Yes, Senator.”

Leah Pilconis, General Counsel, The Associated General Contractors of America:

“Yes.”

Carl Harris, Chairman of the Board, National Association of Home Builders:

“Yes, Senator.”

Brent Booker, General President, Laborers' International Union of North America:

“Yes.”

Nicole Pavia, Director, Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment, Clean Air Task Force:

“Yes.”

LENGTHY FEDERAL PROCESSES:

Chairman Capito: 

“Under current law and regulation, projects can take years or even decades to progress from concept to completing the NEPA process. What are the real world impacts of this lengthy timeline for projects on consumers of goods and services that your members produce?

Leah Pilconis:

“For the construction industry, delays cause uncertainty, and they also cause workforce instability. Our contractors can't commit to hiring workers. They can't order materials when there are delays on breaking ground for projects, often because they're tied up for years with lawsuits, delays also drive up costs.”

Carl Harris:

“The cost of permitting adds to the cost of housing, and every time, as I said in my testimony, every time you raise the cost of a house $1,000, you lock out 106,000 family units. That's substantial.”

ADDRESSING JUDICIAL REVIEW: “I want to ask about judicial review, it came up in almost everybody's testimony. Many projects are targeted with litigation all throughout the process. The resulting legal costs and projects delays can be enough to stop a project, which happened with our Atlantic Coast Pipeline in West Virginia.”

BUILDING CONSENSUS: “I think we have a lot of commonality here, a lot of good ideas, and a lot of thought that I think are going along the same lines. I think we should think big, and then come down from big to where we can meet the sweet spot. Because, like Senator Curtis said, we've been talking about this for years, we haven't quite gotten there. So, I'm committed.”

HEARING RECORD REMAINS OPEN: “The hearing record will remain open, as I said earlier, until March 21 and anybody – I would hope that you would submit suggestions that you might have heard today, or other suggestions. The public will be allowed to submit comments and materials for the hearing record by sending these documents to permitting@epw.senate.gov. This email address is also accessible on the Committee's website.”

Click HERE to watch Chairman Capito’s opening statement.

Click HERE to watch Chairman Capito’s questions.

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