CERAWEEK: Natural gas industry sees narrow window for US permitting reform

Natural gas industry groups expressed optimism that US permitting reform legislation could be passed in the coming months, but stressed there is a narrow window for progress.

"I'm actually bullish on it, I think we are going to see it," Marty Durbin, president of the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said on the sidelines of CERAWEEK by S&P Global on March 25. "I'm not betting the farm yet, but I do think that the stars are all aligning here."

Pressure on politicians from multiple industries could focus minds, Durbin said.

"You've got every business sector out there saying this has got to get done," he said, adding permitting reform is about more than energy. "This is roads and bridges and airports and water facilities, you name it."

A permitting bill, dubbed the SPEED Act, was passed in the US House in December 2025 with support from 11 Democrats. The bill would limit the scope of National Environmental Policy Act reviews and shorten the statute of limitations for related court challenges from roughly six years to 150 days, while also narrowing eligibility for legal standing.

Negotiations in the Senate were paused in December 2025 by lead negotiators Senators Martin Heinrich, Democrat-New Mexico, and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat-Rhode Island, ranking members on the energy and environment committees, in response to the Trump administration's actions targeting fully permitted US offshore wind projects and solar applications.

However, Heinrich and Whitehouse announced on March 6, 2026, that talks would resume, citing positive momentum on solar permitting from the administration and the expectation that "there will be no further interference with already-permitted wind projects."

A "dramatic" change in the politics surrounding permitting reform is raising the likelihood of success, according to Chris Treanor, Executive Director of Partnership to Address Global Emissions.

"Affordability is a top issue for voters and for member policymakers," Treanor said in a March 24 interview with Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. "And Democrats have come around to appreciate that clean energy projects are just as susceptible to permitting obstacles as pipelines are."

Time pressure

That said, there is a short window of opportunity.

"We've got eight weeks to get it done," Treanor said. "Once you start moving into July, you're deep into midterm season, and you're entering a phase where neither side wants to let the other one have a win."

Progress will need to happen during the upcoming two-week recess, Treanor said.

"If in that next [recess], we don't see language presented or an outline presented by [Senators] Capito and Whitehouse, then it will signal to me that maybe we really are waiting until the lame duck period," Treanor said.

During the lame duck period after the November midterm elections, "you have a bunch of members that are taking their last vote, so they can vote for permitting reform because they believed their whole lives that it was necessary, and the only reason they didn't vote for it previously was for some political reason," Treanor said.

Hopes would fade further after that.

"Democrats will almost certainly win back the House majority," Treanor said.

That would elevate Representatives Frank Pallone and Jared Huffman to chairmen of the energy and commerce committee and the natural resources committee, respectively. They would "almost certainly will not prioritize permitting reform," Treanor said.

Lack of goodwill

Former Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat-Louisiana, struck a less optimistic note.

"It's going to be very tough, because the time is short and tempers are short," Landrieu said in a March 25 interview with Platts at CERAWeek. "It's hard to pass legislation when you have adequate time, and you have a lot of goodwill; we have neither."

The politics soured "because of the President's unfortunate personal crusade against offshore wind, which we all seem to have been suffering from," Landrieu said.

Landrieu is co-chair of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, which advocates for natural gas.

But Landrieu felt the March 24 appointment of Alan Armstrong to fill the Senate spot vacated by Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin is "one of the best things that has happened on this subject."

Armstrong, who was CEO of midstream company Williams from 2011 to July 2025, vowed to spend his short time in the Senate working toward permitting reform.