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House adopts resolution urging Congress to streamline energy permitting
Summary
The Montana House on the floor adopted House Joint Resolution 17 urging Congress and the president to streamline permitting and review requirements for energy projects. Supporters cited grid and data-center demands; opponents warned the resolution would roll back landmark federal environmental protections.
The Montana House of Representatives on the floor adopted House Joint Resolution 17, a nonbinding measure urging Congress and the president to reform permitting processes and certain federal environmental reviews to speed energy development.
Why it matters: Supporters said modern energy demands — including for data centers and critical minerals — require faster federal permitting and updated rules; opponents said the resolution threatens protections secured by the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and could reopen long-fought environmental fixes in Montana.
Majority Leader Jay Fitzpatrick, who led the effort in the House, said federal permitting delays are constraining all kinds of energy projects and urged a federal response. “There are so many delays in permitting that it’s now getting very hard to get any type of energy, whether that’s renewable or the more traditional fossil fuel related sources of energy,” Fitzpatrick said on the House floor.
Fitzpatrick also said the resolution asks Congress to review the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in light of demands for critical minerals and other resources. An amendment inserting a call to examine that statute passed on the floor before the final adoption.
Representative Powers delivered a lengthy opposition speech, urging lawmakers not to “go backwards” on national environmental protections. “You may not remember that rivers caught on fire because of dangerous flammable chemicals on the surface,” Powers said, citing historical pollution and cleanup efforts under federal laws. He said Montana’s environmental restoration, including Superfund cleanups in the Clark Fork Basin and asbestos remediation in Libby, resulted from landmark federal laws and should not be discarded.
The House recorded an earlier roll-call on an amendment to the resolution that passed 58–42; later the resolution was adopted by the House (the journal records the adoption). The measure is a formal expression of the Montana Legislature’s view and does not itself change state law or federal rules.
Context and next steps: HJR 17 is a state-level request to Congress and the president; it does not change state permitting authority. Supporters said the resolution aims to signal Montana’s priorities to federal lawmakers. Opponents said the resolution’s language is broad and could be read as endorsing repeal or weakening of federal statutes that Montanans rely on for clean air and water.
The House’s action sends the resolution to the Senate and places Montana’s position on the congressional record; any federal change would require congressional or executive action.
