SEIA CEO emphasizes permitting reform in Senate committee testimony
Abigail Ross Hopper, the outgoing president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) testified in front of the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Jan. 28.
Stressing energy affordability during her testimony, Hopper emphasized that renewable energy permitting reform is necessary for “equal treatment of all energy sources.” Reforming the solar and storage permitting process could have lasting effects on utility bills for millions of Americans, the association says.
The U.S. is going through a major affordability crisis, Hopper says. According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, electrical utility prices going up an average of 40% since 2020.
The best way to address that problem is to build more solar and storage to help the straining American energy grid, and Hopper says that “now is the moment” to address such an overarching issue.
“Unsubsidized solar is now the cheapest source of electricity in history in much of the country,” Hopper said in her testimony. “With no fuel costs, solar provides a hedge against natural gas price volatility that continues to cause electricity price spikes. The only way to put downward pressure on prices is by bringing more power online, not less. States with higher levels of deployment of solar and storage, like Texas, are experiencing lower and more stable electricity prices.
“Streamlining permitting is essential to addressing the energy affordability crisis American households and businesses are facing.”
Reliability has become a “huge risk” for the American energy grid, Ross Hopper said in her testimony, especially in the summer and winter seasons. SEIA says delaying permitting or construction through federal action could have potentially dire consequences for consumers, the utility workforce, and the health of energy systems themselves.
“Even if we have rolling brownouts, that’s incredibly impactful, especially to people with medical needs who need electricity,” Hopper told Maryland Senator Angelo Alsobrooks.
“But in addition, prices continue to go up. We are all experiencing that. I feel it when I open my electricity bill. I know others do as well. So when electrons that were supposed to be delivered and are no longer available because we weren’t able to finish the project, (that) puts some more pressure on the system and prices will go up. So it impacts all of us.”
‘Technology-neutral’ permitting reform
States like Arkansas are currently receiving major investments in high-technology sectors like AI and cloud computing, according to Arkansas Senator John Boozman. It is paramount that permitting reform policy remains “technology-neutral,” he added, to encourage a wide range of investments.
“You’ve heard unanimity here around technology-neutral, technology agnostic solutions, not weaponizing the permitting system,” Hopper told Boozman during her testimony. “That means that you have clear timelines so that every project regardless of the source of the energy has the same kind of timeline, same kind of environmental reviews–they’ll be different based on the technology but they should be standard and predictable.”
Being clear about final permitting decisions is also a critical element, Hopper says. The Senate and other legislating bodies must take steps to ensure that the sitting President, whoever it may be, “does not take the ability to weaponize inter-agency permitting.”
Permitting reform must begin with the idea that projects entering the permitting process may move through it in good faith and with fair treatment, she adds.
“America’s solar companies are manufacturing and deploying the power we need to keep the lights on and keep prices affordable,” Hopper says. “To ensure a reliable grid and put downward pressure on prices, permitting reform is essential. SEIA strongly supports these bipartisan efforts to improve the process for energy and transmission projects.”
Hopper will step down from SEIA’s top executive position on Jan. 30, as the association welcomes in new president and CEO Darren Van’t Hof.
