Santa Fe New Mexican: Heinrich, bipartisan group of senators unveil sweeping energy bill

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including New Mexico's Martin Heinrich, unveiled an expansive bill this week aimed at reducing permitting requirements for energy projects, creating jobs and streamlining environmental review and historic preservation processes.

Heinrich said the goal is not to permit every energy project but to move more quickly to develop the country's energy infrastructure.

"This bipartisan legislation will deliver cheaper energy to New Mexico homes, create more jobs for New Mexico workers and make sure that our growth is responsible," Heinrich said during a news conference.

The 417-page Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act contains priorities for each party, such as encouraging electricity production - including green energy - and increasing regulation of data centers while also making changes to environmental rules that conservation groups will likely oppose. Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said the changes reflect the "greatest attack on our bedrock environmental laws in U.S. history."

Backing the bill alongside Heinrich was fellow Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Republican committee Chair Sen. Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Heinrich is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Also sponsoring the bill is Energy committee Chair Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a strong proponent of "unleashing American energy" who has become known for his support for privatizing some federal public lands.

The bill will not advance immediately - the House and Senate both adjourned this week and are not scheduled to return to Washington until Nov. 9.

In a fact sheet explaining the bill, Heinrich's office outlines three main impacts: the development and expansion of energy transmission, creating jobs from that expansion and reducing red tape around environmental analysis and litigation.

The bill would help build more energy transmission lines faster, require transmission planning and grid-enhancing technology and require data centers to pay for all of their associated transmission costs, according to Heinrich's office.

It would also make changes to a number of major statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts and the National Historic Preservation Act. The changes include new deadlines for environmental reviews and limitations on legal challenges.

These changes and the unusual bipartisanship reflect certain policy priorities historically aligned with Republican and Democratic objectives. For example, the bill would offer Endangered Species Act consultation authority to states if they meet certain requirements, reflecting a longtime Republican goal of more state-led management of listed species.

But the bill would also impose penalties on any future presidential administration aiming to ban a class of energy projects - like wind and solar, a move President Donald Trump attempted earlier this year that was later blocked in court. Heinrich has long been a proponent of renewable energy.

Schlenker-Goodrich said the bill fails to equitably balance development and environmental protection.

"If we are going to have an effective transition from fossil fuels to renewables, we actually have to have the federal government set a direction for our energy future, and what this bill does is cede that authority to tech energy finance interests in the market where they dominate, not the people," he said in an interview.

He said it would reduce environmental protections for things like oil and gas development and favor developers' interests.

"They are not empowering states," he added. "It's burdening states with issues that have traditionally been the purview of the federal government. Even if this bill provides some measure of funding for that, it's not going to work out that well, and it's going to create this patchwork of very disparate regulatory systems that are contingent on the politics of that particular state."

Heinrich responded in a statement that the U.S. is entering "a new era of energy demand."

"We need to be able to get major energy projects to a 'yes' or 'no' faster so we can meet that demand and deliver cheaper energy," Heinrich said. "The reality is that 83% of the energy projects stuck in the interconnection queue are clean energy projects. We can't meet rising demand if we leave these projects waiting for decades. This bill delivers cheaper energy and good-paying jobs while protecting key environmental review, codifying the statutory right to Tribal consultation and ensuring the ability to challenge projects in court."

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