Permitting Reform in 2023 Debt Ceiling Law

As part of negotiations around the 2023 debt ceiling increase, Congress adopted certain revisions to the permitting process for energy projects, including:

• Amending the National Environmental Policy Act by requiring a single federal agency to lead environmental reviews for infrastructure projects, setting a one-year deadline for agencies to issue environmental assessments, and a two-year deadline for environmental impact statements.
• Allowing that if an agency develops a “categorical exclusion” for a type of project, such as electric vehicle chargers, another agency could use it instead of going through a separate review for chargers.

The legislation also requires the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to assess how much “prudent” transmission capacity is needed to share electricity with neighboring regions to strengthen grid reliability.