Manchin vows to introduce resolution to overturn Biden permitting rule

Senate Energy Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he will lead a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the Biden administration’s final rule on permitting announced Tuesday morning.

“All the White House had to do was implement the commonsense, bipartisan permitting reforms in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, that all sides agreed upon, but once again they’ve disregarded the deal that was made, the intent of the law that was signed, and are instead corrupting it with their own radical agenda,” Manchin, one of the Senate’s most vocal proponents of reforming the permitting process, said in a statement.

“This will only lead to more costly delays and litigation,” he continued. “For this reason, I intend to lead a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to get back to the deal that they cut with Congress and signed into law.”

The Energy Department rule alters the permitting process to streamline categorical exclusions, or those that are considered not to have enough of an environmental impact to require a full review. It also undoes 2020 Trump-era rules that the Biden Energy Department said added hurdles to the process of public participation in the comment process.

Manchin, who announced last November that he will not seek reelection, has led and voted for several previous CRA resolutions to undo many of the Biden administration’s energy policies. The CRA allows for a simple majority of both chambers of Congress to repeal a federal rule, although they remain subject to presidential vetoes.

The West Virginia senator has also joined Republicans in backing CRA resolutions that would have undone Endangered Species Act rules and a Labor Department rule on environmental and sustainable governance, as well as another resolution that would have restored tariffs on solar panel parts paused by Biden.

Biden has vetoed all CRA resolutions targeting the administration’s energy and environment rules thus far.