US legislation intended to streamline the federal permitting process for mobility projects and along key freight corridors has recently been reintroduced in Congress on a bipartisan basis and is now being deliberated by the House Transportation Committee. If passed, the Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act would expedite new projects in areas like e-truck charging infrastructure and expanding the grid by switching to a permit-by-rule system.
Permit-by-rule systems allow certain projects to be quickly expedited if certain regulatory conditions are met, and place the burden on agencies to prove that a new project meets standards, instead of the applicants. “Unfortunately, executive agencies are often excruciatingly slow at granting permits, delaying critical projects that support rapid growth—especially in states like Utah where the majority of the land is federally controlled. The time is now to reform and streamline the permitting processes,” said Utah Representative Celeste Maloy, the bill’s lead sponsor in the chamber, in a statement.
“Years of changes in guidance and regulations from administration to administration and a complex web of judicial rulings have resulted in an ever-expanding hodgepodge of often duplicative and contradictory requirements,” added Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito. “While this confusing and complex body of administrative and common law has grown over the past half century, Congress has not stepped in to provide the holistic clarifications or modernization.”
The bill has also seen some support from Democrats. “We need to build out a grid to meet current and future demand,” emphasized Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Transportation Committee’s ranking member. “Seventy percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old, and they’re showing their age. We know what we need to do. We need to build, and fast.”
As part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden administration allocated US$891bn in spending for infrastructure projects, including US$783bn specifically for green energy. Oer US$5.5bn of this went to heavy duty charging and retooling projects alone. However, deployment has been slow—one of President Trump’s key attacks against the Biden administration was contrasting the amount of money spent on charging infrastructure with the few chargers that had yet been deployed as a result.
Should the FREE Act pass, it could expedite the speed of new charging and grid projects for both trucks and passenger vehicles alike. However, Trump has also taken steps to hack away at federally-owned fleet charging infrastructure, and plans to scrutinise some projects already approved for grants under the IRA.
