Obama says he will veto bill to fast track pipeline permits

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

January 21, 2015 | 2:26 PM

AP Photo / Mandel Ngan

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, in Washington.

A bill that would set a strict deadline for approving new pipeline project applications was voted out of a House committee on Tuesday but President Obama says he will veto it if it reaches his desk. Industry groups are pushing for the “Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act,” (HR 161), which is sponsored by Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo.

The bill would give FERC one year to decide on pipeline permits. Other federal agencies would then have 90 days to weigh in. If these deadlines aren’t met, the project would be considered approved. Tamara Young-Allen, a spokesperson for FERC, says on average the process takes 12 to 18 months. In a letter supporting the bill, America’s Natural Gas Alliance says the environmental review process required under the National Environmental Policy Act “lacks any real enforcement mechanism to ensure timely decisions by appropriate permitting agencies.”

The industry is in a rush to build new pipelines as a result of increased production in places like Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Pipeline capacity is full, and producers have seen the price of natural gas drop as a result.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the White House says it strongly opposes the measure.

“H.R. 161 could create conflicts with existing statutory and regulatory requirements and practices related to agencies’ programs, and preclude opportunities for engaging the public and potentially impacted communities, thereby causing confusion and the risk of increased litigation.”

A version of the bill was voted out of the House in 2013, but died when it reached the Democratically controlled Senate.