Democrats desperately needed the vote of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to get their signature legislative priority across the finish. So they did what Washington does best: They cut a deal. To help land his support for a bill hailed by advocacy groups as the biggest investment ever in curbing climate change, Manchin said he secured a commitment from President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders to move a permitting-streamlining package for energy projects through Congress before Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Now the climate bill is law, and Manchin is ready to collect. But key Democratic constituency groups are lining up against the proposal, calling it bad for the country and the climate. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and dozens of House members agree. The fissure could complicate the party’s efforts to keep the focus on this summer’s major legislative victories going into the November midterm elections, which will determine which party controls the House and the Senate. More immediately, the divide is testing the ability of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to keep enough Democrats in line to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month. Schumer is pushing ahead. He said this week that he would attach Manchin’s preferred measure to must-pass legislation that would keep the federal government running into mid-December. To win over skeptics, some Democrats are stressing that Manchin’s proposal to streamline environmental reviews for energy infrastructure projects would be good for renewable energy, too. A summary of the proposed legislation has been circulating among Senate Democrats in recent days and was obtained by The Associated Press. It states that the package being developed is key to meeting climate goals by developing interstate transmission lines that will transport electricity from Midwestern wind farms, for example, to major East Coast cities. “Unfortunately, today these higher voltage, longer lines across multiple jurisdictions are not getting built,” the summary said. The summary states that about 20 large transmission projects are ready to move forward with some federal support. “Reforms to address permitting, siting and cost allocation concerns are key to building these projects,” the document says. In interviews, key Democratic senators stressed a similar message, calling the energy proposal complementary to the massive climate package that passed last month. “Right now, there’s just too much delay in solar and wind and geothermal, so I want at every possible opportunity to speed up permitting for renewables,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said the permitting effort is about making sure bedrock environmental laws are followed in a more timely manner, such as concurrent reviews by government agencies rather than one agency beginning its work after another has finished. Schatz said the “old environmental movement” was built around stopping inappropriate projects. But the “new environmental movement” is built around building an unprecedented amount of clean energy. “In order to do that, we’re going to run into the same regulations that have stopped bad projects for a number of years,” Schatz said. “If we’re going to actually meet our clean energy goals, we’re going to need to build big planet-saving projects, and that means the federal regulations that slow them down have to be looked at very carefully.” Legislative text incorporating Manchin’s priorities […]

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