Debt limit deal would approve West Virginia pipeline, curtail environmental law

The deal announced by President Biden and House Republican leaders this weekend would legislate the approval of a controversial West Virginia natural gas pipeline and shorten environmental reviews under one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws. 

Included in the 99-page deal to lift the debt ceiling is the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a pipeline that would carry fuel from West Virginia to Virginia and has become a pet project of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). 

Manchin, who would face reelection next year in ruby-red West Virginia if he decides to run, touted the inclusion of the pipeline as something he helped to secure. 

“I am proud to have fought for this critical project and to have secured the bipartisan support necessary to get it across the finish line,” he said in a written statement. 

The deal also shortens the time the federal government can take to assess a proposed project’s impact on the environment, limiting the most rigorous reviews to two years and less rigorous reviews to one year.

When seeking to implement similar reforms, the Trump administration determined that the average timeline for more rigorous reviews was about 4.5 years. 

Proponents of such provisions say that the current system takes too long and delays important infrastructure projects while opponents have expressed concern that shorter timelines would limit community input on projects that could be harmful. 

The debt deal legislation would also set page limits for these reviews.

Both the pipeline provisions and the timeline provisions could face some resistance from some Democrats — 10 members of the caucus voted against a similar effort in the Senate last year while dozens of House Democrats came out against them.

However, tied to the debt limit the extent of any such resistance is not totally clear, though more than 80 recently signed onto a new letter saying that any deal should include a buildout of the country’s electric infrastructure, full funding for offices that carry out environmental reviews and a focus on implementation rather than “gutting” environmental laws. 

There are some provisions in the bill that may bolster areas that Democrats have pushed for: renewable energy and electricity transmission infrastructure. 

Specifically it adds energy storage — projects that are often used to store renewable energy in batteries — to those that are eligible for a program that could provide more coordination in their approval process.

It also requires a study of how much electricity can be transferred between the country’s different grid regions.