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Democrats decry proposal to create fee-based, shielded permitting pathway for projects; Republicans call it permitting reform
Summary
The committee debated a provision that would allow private entities to pay for their own environmental reviews and obtain legal protections from challenges — an arrangement Democrats called ‘‘pay-to-play’’ that would effectively remove judicial review and public input.
A central point of contention in the markup was a set of provisions critics described as a ‘‘pay-to-play’’ permitting scheme: companies would be allowed to pay a special fee to have their environmental review completed on an expedited schedule and to limit or eliminate judicial challenges to that review, according to opponents' descriptions of the language.
How it was described: Democratic members said the provision would allow companies to commission and pay for their own NEPA (National Environmental…
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