S. 4944, Environmental Deregulation & Permitting Acceleration. Quorum's AI analysis reads it as a net cost — and names who bears it.
S. 4944 · Net cost
What it does
This bill streamlines federal permitting for natural gas pipelines, mining operations, and water-discharge projects by centralizing review authority in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), imposing strict timelines on environmental review, and raising the evidentiary bar for denying permits. It weakens state water-quality certification authority, limits judicial review of permits, and exempts certain mining activities from environmental review requirements.
The analysis names natural gas pipeline operators and developers — and 3 more groups — among the beneficiaries.
The cost
Automatic permit approval: If any agency misses a deadline, the permit is deemed approved. This creates perverse incentives for applicants to overwhelm agencies with requests, ensuring approval by attrition.
Transparency scores 35%. The analysis flags 2 riders and a critical warning level.
Who is behind it
Filed by Alan Armstrong. Cosponsored by Bernie Moreno, Cynthia Lummis, Dave McCormick and James Lankford.