Not Everyone Should Have a Say

Last month, Senator Joe Manchin proposed speeding up the permitting process for energy infrastructure by limiting the number of legal challenges projects can face and setting time limits on how long a project can languish in limbo, waiting for approval. As my colleague Rob Meyer wrote, these reforms would “likely make it easier, faster, and cheaper to build the kind of major new transmission lines that climate change requires.” But they would also “come at a cost for environmentalists: The bill may authorize some fossil-fuel projects”—in fact, Manchin included a provision requiring approval of a natural-gas pipeline in West Virginia—and “make it harder for green groups to block new infrastructure projects in court.”

Environmentalists weren’t willing to stomach that cost: Manchin declared defeat after an uprising from progressive Democrats and reticence from Republican senators. Manchin’s loss was hardly a win for the climate, however. The demise of permitting reform reveals that many people within the environmentalist