GOP Permit Plans Face Partisan Split Amid Broad Interest In Streamlining

Democratic lawmakers are bashing various elements of Republican legislation to ease environmental reviews of fossil fuel development, certain other energy projects and hardrock mining, highlighting a deep partisan split on the issue even as lawmakers from both parties express an interest in streamlining permitting policies. Democrats’ critiques at a Feb. 28 House hearing focused on provisions that speed fossil fuel permitting, but other, less-debated provisions of the legislation could gain some bipartisan traction in part because they could ease deployment...