SPEED Act Might Accelerate Microgrids, but GOP-favored Bill Raises Caution Flag for Many

Permitting and interconnection delays are viewed by microgrid and other energy industry members as a major challenge to bringing more energy projects online, especially as data center development and electrification drive burgeoning energy demand.

Now in Congress are several bills that aim to accelerate energy project development. They include HR 4776, the SPEED Act (Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development), which changes how federal agencies such as the Department of Energy comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and how courts review agencies’ NEPA rulings.

SPEED Act’s goal is to create certainty for project developers

The measure passed the U.S. House in December 221-196, with 210 Republicans voting for it. Now in the Senate, the measure aims to provide greater certainty for project sponsors by restricting when federal agencies may revisit or revoke prior environmental reviews or federal authorizations.

Also included in the act are templates and processes for federal projects. It calls for simultaneous reviews and strict timelines for complying with NEPA. For example, it creates a 150-day limit for lawsuits. It also calls for reusing previous reviews for similar projects.

On the positive side, the SPEED Act could shorten environmental review time for federal projects or those on federal lands in ways that bring more energy to the grid.

But it’s also seen as potentially harming the environment because it favors fossil fuels and fails to address the underlying challenges that are sparking project delays.

Permitting delays are an “economic chokehold”

 “The permitting backlog isn't just a bureaucratic inconvenience. It's an economic chokehold on American energy development,” said Dr. Mark McNees, director of social and sustainable enterprises at Florida State University's Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship.

Projects that should take two years often take closer to five or more years to complete, he said.

The SPEED Act addresses distributed energy resource (DER) bottlenecks with templates that can be applied across jurisdictions, said Dan Fletcher, co-founder and head of ecosystems, Dcbel, which offers home energy systems that integrate solar, EV charging and bidirectional power flow into a single appliance.

But Gord Reynolds, founder of the utility advisory firm Battersea, said that the SPEED Act doesn’t address the problems underlying delays.

“I’m a guy who’s actually built this stuff,” Reynolds said. ”Most people will tell you how the SPEED Act will ‘accelerate deployment.’ I’ll tell you why the bill addresses symptoms while ignoring the disease.”

SPEED Act addresses the wrong bottleneck, consultant says

The SPEED Act won’t help the majority of projects that are outside federal jurisdiction, he said. NEPA reform solves the wrong bottleneck, he added.

State programs like California’s Microgrid Incentive Program or privately and utility-funded projects with no federal involvement make the SPEED Act irrelevant, he said, especially for community projects.

The Act won’t help community resilience projects that keep hospitals running during wildfires and protect low-income communities from outages.

For example, the SPEED Act won’t benefit the Oregon Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, which provides state funding and state management of microgrids and resilient energy systems. Those projects likely won’t trigger NEPA, he said.

Most projects that aren’t federal or sited on federal land are held back not by NEPA but by local interconnection agreements, utility tariffs, master metering restrictions and municipal permitting, Reynolds added.

“Where the SPEED Act actually helps are tribal microgrids–although some tribes are ambivalent about weakening NEPA– military base microgrids (but these are federal projects, not community resilience) and large transmission-connected projects on federal land,” Reynolds said.

Another problem: The SPEED Act is not technology-neutral, said Mark McNees, director, social and sustainable enterprises at the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, Florida State University

Trump administration can block offshore wind projects under the Act

Last-minute amendments preserve the Trump Administration’s ability to block offshore wind projects. Trump’s Interior Department stopped work on five offshore projects along the U.S. east coast late last year, although a federal judge recently granted an injunction on one of those projects while Dominion Energy pursues a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s suspension.

“Permitting reform that streamlines natural gas pipelines while leaving solar and wind projects subject to political whims isn't reform. It's picking winners,” McNees said. “For microgrids that integrate renewables with storage, this selective approach could undermine the very distributed energy systems that enhance grid resilience.”

The American Clean Power Association withdrew its support for the measure, saying that an amendment from U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., was added without a floor vote. It allows the Trump administration to continue discriminating against clean energy technologies.

The Harris amendment creates permit uncertainty by allowing fully permitted projects to be canceled even after the Act’s passage, the association said. And those projects would be cancelled amid skyrocketing energy demand and soaring energy prices, the association said.

“In communities that are most hard hit by the need for energy storage or community solar projects, they just can't get connected. And the Speed Act just doesn't resolve for the issues that affect those projects,” Reynolds said.