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Utilities and unions tell House subcommittee permitting delays raise wildfire risk and costs; they urge Fix Our Forest Act
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Summary
Witnesses from electric co‑ops, public power associations, unions and experts told a House subcommittee that inconsistent, slow permitting on federal lands increases wildfire risk, raises consumer costs and undermines worker safety, and they urged Congress to adopt categorical NEPA exclusions, standard timelines and other provisions in the House-passed Fix Our Forest Act.
Witnesses at a House subcommittee hearing said permitting delays for vegetation management and transmission work on federal lands exacerbate wildfire risk, raise costs for ratepayers and complicate workforce safety, and urged Congress to pass the House-passed Fix Our Forest Act to speed approvals.
Chairman Westerman opened the session by pressing the need to implement section 512 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and to adopt uniform agency practices. "When utilities encounter bureaucratic bottlenecks that prevent timely maintenance necessary to reduce fire risk from their power lines, that creates a recipe for disaster," he said in his opening statement.
Multiple utility leaders described real-world consequences. Jim Anderson, chief executive officer of Mid State Electric Cooperative, said a past complex fire damaged a transmission line and cut power county‑wide; he recounted a decades‑old liability case that carried a $327,000 cost and said repeated agency delays left his cooperative exposed. "Too much is at stake to wait another 30 years to ensure rural communities have access to safe, reliable, and affordable electricity," Anderson said.
Mason Baker, CEO of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and testifying for the American Public Power Association, urged categorical exclusions from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for routine vegetation work and recommended liability‑shield provisions when agencies deny or delay mitigation requests. He said utilities often face strict liability for fires caused by hazard trees the federal government refused to let them remove.
Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, focused on high‑capacity, multistate transmission and said a "one‑stop shop" for siting and permitting — modeled on pipeline siting offices — would shorten timelines. Hayes cited a recent study she summarized showing that construction costs can rise substantially with each year of delay and said early community engagement lowers litigation risk and overall cost.
Jason Bolling, CEO of Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, gave a concrete example: a routine corridor project near Tombstone, Arizona, that required roughly 15 years of permitting before about eight weeks of physical work; compliance costs for roughly 1.5 miles totaled about $500,000. "Better agency coordination could have prevented years of risk and hundreds of thousands in avoidable costs," Bolling said.
Union and workforce representatives also testified. George Arhos, an international representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said stop‑start permitting undermines crew continuity and raises safety risks, and he urged minimum training standards and prevailing‑wage protections.
Witnesses and committee members repeatedly identified several common, actionable reforms: (1) adopt or operationalize cross‑agency categorical exclusions under NEPA to expedite routine vegetation management; (2) create consistent, mandatory timelines for reviews and permit decisions; (3) establish a one‑stop siting office for multistate transmission projects and improve early community engagement; and (4) consider liability clarifications so utilities that identify hazards but are denied timely permission to mitigate are not automatically strictly liable for resulting ignitions.
Members also pressed witnesses on alternatives and tradeoffs. Committee discussion noted undergrounding can reduce ignition risk but is often far more expensive than reconductoring or other engineering upgrades, and that decisions about undergrounding must be evaluated case by case. Several members urged using existing authorities where possible, saying agencies have tools that are not being uniformly implemented.
The committee entered unanimous consent to include sector wildfire‑priorities documents from trade groups and a letter from Mountain Parks Electric highlighting a federally funded mitigation project delayed by pending permits. Members said they may submit follow‑up written questions for the witnesses; the hearing record was left open for additional submissions and the subcommittee adjourned.
The hearing produced no formal votes or legislative actions during the session; witnesses and members described options for future statutory and administrative changes.
