Permitting Plan B: Democrats lean on FERC, DOE

As prospects remain murky for bipartisan permitting reform in Congress, top Senate Democrats are turning to new strategies.

They are looking to the nation’s top energy regulator and action from the Biden administration to achieve their clean energy goals.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to “strengthen” and finalize a slew of major rules that could help speed the deployment of clean energy and transmission lines. He laid out a series of potential changes to the rules in a letter to FERC last week…

Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, said that Schumer’s letter reflects growing unease among some Democrats on Capitol Hill about FERC’s pending rules.

The commission has been split politically, with two Democrats, two Republicans and one vacancy, since January, which FERC watchers say could make it challenging for the commission to reach consensus on more controversial issues like cost allocation.

“I think last year, a lot of Democrats presumed that transmission and interconnection would be resolved and that FERC would get it done. That’s clearly not the case now,” Hartman said. “A new reality is setting in…”