This opinion piece from TWW’s Steve Handy first ran in the Deseret News on February 6, 2025 and can be accessed here.
Opinion: Smarter permitting will benefit energy sources in Utah and boost job creation
Published: Feb 6, 2025, 9:01 a.m. MST
By Steve Handy
Over the past decade, America has rediscovered the importance of domestic energy production and local supply chains for everyday goods.
First, we broke the stranglehold of the OPEC oil and gas cartel and became the world’s dominant energy producer and exporter. Next, we started to bring manufacturing investment and jobs back home after decades of outsourcing to other countries, especially China.
These are encouraging trends, but there is much more work to be done. And one area needing urgent attention is the environmental permitting process for energy and manufacturing projects.
Contrary to the claims of some extreme environmental groups, companies in the energy and manufacturing sectors are highly regulated when it comes to their environmental performance.
They are subject to strict standards and cannot move forward with the construction of new facilities or the expansion of existing facilities without first securing a whole host of permits from various federal and state agencies.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with this. Permitting is an important mechanism for enforcing reasonable environmental protections. But in practice, the permitting process often becomes too complex and time-consuming.
Ironically, this can delay or even cancel new projects and expansions that would actually meet the underlying environmental standards. The process, not the substance, is the problem.
Over the next four years, you can expect the Trump administration and officials in Congress to work on reforms at the federal level to make the permitting process run more smoothly. But there is work to be done at the state level as well.
In fact, a key success milestone of Gov. Spencer Cox’s Operation Gigawatt must include permitting reform at all levels. Here in Utah, state Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, is pushing positive reforms that would actually expand the lessons learned from oil and natural gas permitting to other areas of our state economy.
Clancy’s legislation, HB85, Environmental Permitting Modifications, would require the state’s Division of Air Quality to study the “permit by rule” approach to oil and gas permitting in Utah and how it could be applied to other regulated sources across the economy. The study would include a review of how “permit by rule” has been used in other states and the potential environmental and economic impacts.
Currently, the bill is making its way through the session and recently passed out of committee. According to Clancy, “The bill will strengthen the work of Gov. Cox’s executive order and mission for enhanced and accelerated infrastructure in Utah.”
The “permit by rule” approach was developed for industries where the equipment and technologies used in different projects are more or less the same. If developers use these technologies, which have their own performance standards set by federal and state regulators, then their project will qualify for a streamlined permitting process.
Given the standardization of technologies and equipment used in oil and gas — from drilling rigs and well heads to pipeline and storage tanks — you can see how this makes sense within that sector. Clancy’s bill would try to find other kinds of projects where this approach makes just as much sense.
Another important provision of Clancy’s bill would simplify the permitting of larger facilities that have to obtain a large number of permits covering major pieces of equipment that are part of their production process.
As equipment ages and new technologies are developed, it makes sense to upgrade or replace it, especially because newer machinery is usually more efficient and better for the environment. But having to start from scratch and obtain new permits for every piece of new or upgraded equipment is often too time-consuming and expensive, which ironically, keeps older equipment in place for longer. Clancy’s legislation would instruct the Division of Air Quality to adopt a different approach — plant-wide applicability limitations — which would simplify and improve this situation dramatically.
In short, instead of looking at individual pieces of equipment, regulators would set an emissions limit for the entire plant. Therefore, equipment changes that keep the plant’s overall emissions within that limit would qualify for a streamlined permitting process.
It’s crucial to emphasize that neither of the reforms in Clancy’s bill would weaken existing air quality standards or criteria. Instead, they aim to reduce approval times, creating a more efficient and predictable permitting process.
While there is no single solution to “permitting reform,” Clancy’s bill represents a common-sense approach that will benefit Utah’s economy without sacrificing our commitment to environmental protection. I urge our legislators to support this important measure.
The Western Way, advocate for market-competitive solutions to environmental and conservation challenges, endorses Clancy’s bill and urges its support and passage.