Clean Energy Permitting Should be Streamlined to Tackle Climate Change and Protect U.S. Ecosystems, Says The Nature Conservancy and Perkins Coie Report

WASHINGTON, D.C., (October 3, 2024) – The U.S. permitting and regulatory process for new clean energy infrastructure projects should be modernized and streamlined to better tackle climate change and protect sensitive ecosystems across the country, according to a new report by The Nature Conservancy and Perkins Coie. 

“The United States must take concrete actions now to enable a clean energy and nature-positive future,” the report notes, adding that: “Reaching the pace and scale the moment demands will require reforming and modernizing key permitting and approval processes at all levels of government and a host of complementary actions to accelerate climate mitigation.” 

The report - Improving the Environmental Permitting Process for Clean Energy Infrastructure - highlights the “maze of regulatory requirements and processes at the federal, state and local levels” that clean energy, transmission infrastructure, habitat restoration and land management projects all must go through for approval. It provides key policy recommendations that would seek to reduce permitting and regulatory timelines by at least fifty percent. 

The report’s findings highlight that to avoid the worsening impacts of a warming global climate, the nation must rapidly transition to clean energy which will necessitate a 400 percent increase in renewable energy by 2050 and at least a 2.5 times expansion of inter-regional power transmission. The report recommends that the Permitting Council should dedicate resources to conflict resolution and support effective use of environmental collaboration and conflict resolution techniques to reduce conflicts over infrastructure projects.  

The report was authored by subject matter experts at The Nature Conservancy, including Jason Albritton, Laura Brannen, Peter Gower, Paul Heberling, Nels Johnson, Brent Keith, Melanie Santiago-Mosier, Cody Sullivan, and Jessica Wilkinson. It was developed in partnership with Perkins Coie Environment, Energy & Resources practice partners Ted Boling, Laura Morton, and Jane Rueger, and associate Kerensa Gimre. 

The full report can be accessed here.