Svend Brandt-Erichsen Discusses How Federal Agencies Can Expedite Renewable Energy Permitting

Svend Brandt-Erichsen was quoted in the Bloomberg Law article “Agencies Can Expedite Permitting Without Overhaul, Lawyers Say” (subscription required). The article examines how lawyers in the natural resources space feel that renewable energy infrastructure projects could face less hurdles on the road to being permitted under current federal law if governing agencies would use their authority more readily.

Federal agencies, such as the Interior Department, control 27% of all land nationwide and roughly half of the land in the West and Alaska, which gives them a great deal of leeway in pushing projects through. The agencies can also speed up the process by sticking to a permitting schedule when seeking to comply with NEPA as well as other federal permitting laws.

Commenting for the article, Svend said, “The thing that permitting reform attempts to address and could be addressed without changes in the law is providing greater certainty on timeframes.”