DeepSummary
The episode discusses the challenges of permitting reform needed to accelerate the transition to clean energy in the United States. Speaker A, who previously worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, explains that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a crucial mechanism for considering various environmental impacts, but it has become a scapegoat for those seeking to expedite projects. While acknowledging the need for a faster process, Speaker A emphasizes the importance of comprehensive reviews, community engagement, and mitigating environmental harm.
The conversation explores potential solutions like programmatic reviews, improving coordination across agencies, and leveraging technology tools. Speaker A argues that merely pointing to NEPA as the problem is a false solution, as there are numerous bottlenecks, including local opposition, state laws, financing issues, and lack of human capital. Permitting reform should address community engagement, biodiversity conservation, and ensuring economic benefits for impacted communities.
The episode also touches on critical minerals, highlighting the need for responsible mining practices while addressing geopolitical concerns about dependence on China. Speaker A notes that the environmental movement is still grappling with the mining question, and a consensus on criteria for "good mining" has yet to emerge. Additionally, the role of hydrogen and advanced nuclear technologies in the energy transition is discussed.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Permitting reform is crucial for accelerating the transition to clean energy, but it must balance the need for expedited processes with protecting communities and ecosystems.
- NEPA is a critical mechanism for considering various environmental laws and regulations, and merely pointing to it as the problem oversimplifies the complex permitting challenges.
- Potential solutions for permitting reform include programmatic reviews, improved agency coordination, leveraging technology tools, community engagement, biodiversity conservation, and ensuring economic benefits for impacted communities.
- Responsible sourcing of critical minerals is essential for the clean energy transition, but the environmental movement is still grappling with the trade-offs and criteria for "good mining" practices.
- The role of hydrogen and advanced nuclear technologies in the energy transition is being debated, with concerns about ensuring their development aligns with climate goals and sustainability principles.
- Permitting reform requires addressing bottlenecks at various levels, including local opposition, state laws, financing issues, and human capital constraints.
- Transmission infrastructure is a critical component of the clean energy transition, and policymakers may need to consider more aggressive measures to expedite its development, such as cost allocation and eminent domain authority.
- The environmental movement faces a shift in perspective, moving from primarily opposing infrastructure projects to developing criteria for supporting projects that meet certain environmental and community standards.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “However, what that totally misses is that our environmental review process is far more than just NEPA. NEPA is almost like the hanger that all the other pieces hang off of.“ by Speaker A
- “So if we're just building out more dirty energy, then we're contributing to climate change. We're locking in more infrastructure that's presumably if we're going to reach any of our climate targets, would become a stranded asset.“ by Speaker A
- “I think the environmental community is not really wrapping its head around this question in terms of the larger movement here in the United States. I think there is just a reckoning with the previous conversation we had around permitting and siting and the build out of renewables and how essential that is to addressing climate change. But there is less agreement, less conversation around how the environmental movement becomes in favor of mining.“ by Speaker A
- “So I think there is a way that if we look holistically across permitting, that there are places along the entire journey that we could improve the process.“ by Speaker A
Entities
Book
Person
Organization
Episode Information
Columbia Energy Exchange
Columbia University
7/18/23
To meet net zero 2050 goals, the U.S. needs to quadruple wind and solar capacity, double the size of the grid, and increase the electric vehicle fleet 100-fold.
Under the existing permitting process, growth at this pace and scale is nearly impossible. It takes years to secure permits for new plants, transmission lines, and mines. That’s why accelerating the regulatory permitting process is critical.
But doing so may weaken 50 years worth of protections for communities, land, and wildlife in the United States.
What are the implications of the recent proposals for permitting reform? How should clean energy advocates navigate these tradeoffs? And how can policymakers protect American communities and ecosystems as they rush to build out clean energy?
This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Christy Goldfuss about the recent permitting reform proposals and the balance between expanding clean energy and protecting communities and ecosystems.
Christy is the chief policy impact officer for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) a U.S.-based environmental advocacy nonprofit. Prior to joining NRDC, she was the senior vice president for energy and environmental policy at the Center for American Progress. Christy also served in multiple senior positions during the Obama Administration, first as the deputy director of the National Parks Service, and then as the managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.