Construction crews work on a tunnel through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline will pass in Roanoke County, Va., on June 22, 2018. Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times via AP
Comprehensive permit reform has been an elusive Republican priority since at least 2020, and congressional leaders, federal officials, industry experts, and association advocates are cautiously confident a deregulatory measure will make it onto President Donald Trump’s desk in 2026.
If so, they concede with acknowledged irony, it will get there because Democrats, environmental advocates, and the renewable energy industry have joined a bipartisan chorus clamoring to streamline regulations, trim permitting processes, and de-fog the litigative labyrinths that now bedevil energy development and constrict grid expansion.
