Manchin Enlists Oil CEOs to Get GOP Support for Permitting Bill

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Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is enlisting the help of energy-industry executives to marshal Republican support for his plan to speed up the process of getting federal approvals for energy projects, according to people familiar with the matter.

The outreach, which has included companies in the mining, utilities and oil-and-gas industry, underscores the fraught political path for his permitting-overhaul bill. Passing the legislation would mark a big win for the industry and its long-sought efforts to accelerate permitting and scale back environmental reviews that can take years.

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Manchin has said privately he thinks he needs more than 10 Republicans in the Senate to support the measure, which is still being drafted, the people said. He is also concerned that a separate GOP permitting-reform bill, introduced Monday by his Republican West Virginia colleague Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and backed by 38 of her GOP colleagues, could strip needed Republican support for his version, according to the people. Manchin’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The legislation is slated for inclusion in a must-pass government funding bill, as part of a deal that Manchin and the Democratic leadership made in exchange for his pivotal vote last month for President Joe Biden’s slimmed-down economic and climate agenda.

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While the changes align with many long-held energy-industry priorities, it’s faced opposition from some senior Republicans who are angry that Democrats jammed a massive climate spending bill through the Senate on party lines with Manchin’s support. Others have been lukewarm to the package out of concern it won’t make the more sweeping reforms they feel are needed.

Progressive Democrats have also voiced opposition to the package, which has enraged environmentalists who see it as a betrayal.

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Senator Bernie Sanders said last week he’d vote against the stopgap government-funding bill if Democratic leaders added the permiting plan, and more than 70 Democratic lawmakers wrote to House leadership in opposition to the package, hinting they’d be willing to shut down the government over it.

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1- With mid-terms looming, if this package can be stalled, then maybe the GOP House permitting bill can move forward next session if the Republicans take Congress. Then it wouldn’t be tied to this huge spending mess.

2- Finally Democrats appear to be the ones ready to “shut down” the Federal government. They’d probably be more than happy, with the motivating factor that a shut down could prevent Department of Interior employees from approving federal drill permits and other oil & gas projects on Federal Lands.