US House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and committee member Gene Green (D-Tex.) unveiled proposed legislation to reform the application process for energy infrastructure projects seeking cross-border permits.
They said their North American Energy Infrastructure Act would consolidate and modernize the cross-boundary permitting process for oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines, and electric transmission lines, replacing and superseding the current processes that have been created in an ad hoc fashion by multiple executive orders.
North America is in the midst of an energy renaissance, and new infrastructure is needed to transport the growing energy supply and ensure consumers have access to affordable and reliable energy, Upton and Green maintained.
Their bill would bring more certainty to the process for constructing or modifying energy infrastructure projects with respect to North American border-crossing permitting decisions, they said. Such projects also would create jobs, the lawmakers observed.
The committee’s Energy and Power Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), has scheduled an Oct. 2 hearing to examine the proposal.
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