Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Relating to ``Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status with Section 4(D) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment''

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I join my colleagues today to discuss the need to reform our Nation's broken Federal permitting process.

Today, it often takes longer to navigate the Federal permitting process than it does to actually construct a project. It currently takes, on average, 4\1/2\ years or more to complete an environmental impact statement, or EIS. For a quarter of projects, it can take 6 years or more to complete an environmental impact statement. That is because some radical environmental groups have really weaponized the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, and they are exploiting what has become a more and more opaque and convoluted Federal permitting process. This uncertainty not only drives up the cost of future projects, it is being applied to projects currently permitted in good faith.

Take, for instance, the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been operating safely for nearly 6 years in its transporting of over a half a million barrels of crude oil per day from North Dakota--light sweet crude--and from the Fort Berthold Reservation and the Three Affiliated Tribes. It takes it to market, and it is used in our country to fuel our economy. The Army Corps held 389 meetings, conferred with more than 55 Tribes, and completed a 1,261-page environmental assessment before the pipeline went into operation. Yet litigation continued following the Federal approval and completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Corps is currently expected to take more than 4 years to complete a full environmental impact statement for about two-tenths of a mile, crossing under the Missouri River. Subjecting a completed $3.78 billion project to litigation without reasonable limits cannot be the new normal.

Delays and uncertainty drive up the costs of projects, and opponents are exploiting a more and more complicated permitting process so that delay becomes defeat. American consumers are paying the price for this regulatory uncertainty, particularly through higher energy costs.

Increasing the supply and lowering the cost of energy is key to attacking inflation because the cost of energy is built into every other good and service consumed across our economy. To accomplish this goal, the Biden administration needs to take the handcuffs off American energy producers and work with us on bipartisan permitting reform.

A good first start would be for the Senate to consider H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which recently passed the House on a bipartisan vote. H.R. 1 includes comprehensive permitting reforms that will unleash more American energy and make it more efficient and affordable to deliver energy to our Nation.

H.R. 1 also includes three pieces of legislation that I have introduced in the Senate.

First, the North American Energy Act brings certainty to the permitting process for important cross-border energy pipelines and electric transmission line projects and prevents the President from taking unilateral action in canceling vital energy projects like he did with the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Second, the Promoting Interagency Coordination for Review of Natural Gas Projects Act streamlines the review process for interstate natural gas pipelines and LNG projects, helping to more efficiently deliver natural gas to areas that need it the most.

Third, the Bureau of Land Management Mineral Spacing Act improves the permitting process in States like North Dakota with a split mineral estate where the Federal Government owns no surface acreage--none of the surface acres--and has a minority interest in the minerals underneath.

The United States is fortunate to have abundant and affordable reserves of coal, oil, and gas, and U.S. energy companies are global leaders when it comes to producing more energy with the highest environmental standards. We need to empower our producers with a clear, consistent, and timely Federal permitting process. Otherwise, we will once again become dependent on unstable and adversarial countries like Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and even China--countries hostile to our economic and national security interests.

That is why meaningful permitting reform is needed to create jobs, enhance our geopolitical competitiveness, and bring down costs for hard-working families.

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