The US Senate is nearing a deal to reform laws to speed up permitting of large infrastructure projects after the White House compromised on how renewable energy is treated…
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The US Senate is nearing a deal to reform laws to speed up permitting of large infrastructure projects after the White House compromised on how renewable energy is treated, though a vote is uncertain before the midterm elections, a top Senate Democrat said on Thursday.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the environment committee, and fellow Democrat Martin Heinrich have negotiated permitting legislation with Republican counterparts for months, after the talks had been cut off in December when President Donald Trump halted five near-complete offshore East Coast wind farms.
Whitehouse said the Trump administration has given Democrats assurances for improvements in how wind and solar energy projects would be handled in the bill.
"I appreciate very much what the Trump administration has done to move in this direction," he told reporters on Thursday.
"Now it's just a question of proper, ordinary Senate procedure playing out," and "more clarity from (the) executive branch on what they mean" on their promises for wind and solar, he said.
The US House of Representatives, which has not passed the permitting bill, is scheduled
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