Boozman Backs Commonsense Permitting Reform, Cites Arkansas Leadership

Click here to watch Boozman's opening remarks.

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), a member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, highlighted Arkansas's leadership in streamlining energy regulation and urged passage of national policies to improve the federal environmental review process at a hearing with industry experts on Wednesday.

"With Chairman Westerman's passage of the SPEED Act and Governor Sanders signing energy regulatory reforms into state law, Arkansas is emerging as a national leader in commonsense permitting reform. Industries such as technology, lithium, steel, manufacturing, aerospace, defense and forestry are seeking to set up shop in Arkansas or expand existing operations," Boozman said, before asking witnesses to assess how the SPEED Act could provide regulatory certainty as well as if federal reforms can complement state-level efforts.

"One, the kinds of actions we see at the state level, such as Arkansas, does allow investment to come in. The missing component of federal permitting certainty is critical to that," David Terry, President of the National Association of State Energy Officials, said in response. "The SPEED Act, I think does take a good step forward. I think the kind of attraction and business that you see in Arkansas and other states that have taken action, these are once-in-a-generation opportunities. If those businesses, manufacturers go overseas, we lose them forever, and I think that's the urgency to this."

Boozman also highlighted recent major AI and cloud infrastructure investments in Arkansas, such as the multi-billion-dollar data center in West Memphis.

"Arkansas was able to land these investments in part because of a reliable, affordable, and an all-the-above energy supply, including solar energy," the senator said.

"You have identified one of the things that's happening all across the country, including in Arkansas, those big data centers are looking to find the electrons as quickly as they can," Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in response. "And I think that means that you have clear timelines, right, so that every project, regardless of the source of the energy, has the same kind of timeline, the same kind of environmental reviews. They'll be different based on the technology, but they should be sort of standard and predictable. And I think being clear about the certainty and the finality of final decisions and final permits is critical."

Finally, Boozman noted the impact of the winter weather event in Arkansas, as well as a large swath of the United States, and urged consideration of whether comprehensive permitting reform would allow utilities to better prepare for future emergencies.

"We are grateful for the preparations by our local utilities and the linemen who kept our system performing well in Arkansas with minimal outages through the storm. The Department of Energy provided proactive relief in allowing the use of back-up generators and EPA Administrator Zeldin has also made operational flexibility a priority," Boozman said.

"I really commend the linemen, the utility workers, the states and DOE for having gotten through this last weekend. I think with regard to emergency backup generation, I think cooperation between EPA, the governors' offices, and governors' energy offices and the Department of Energy in these emergency situations to make sure that those generators come on when they're needed, but also to make sure that they're prepared to. So, I think that is fundamental cooperation," answered Terry.

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