State Senate Calls On Congress To Reform Energy Permitting

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said West Virginia is an all-of-the-above energy state and he introduced a resolution that calls on the state’s congressional delegation to reform the federal permitting process for a federal regulatory environment that encourages energy production. 

“The federal government’s permitting processes a system of unnecessarily complex, redundant and uncertain, thereby discouraging investment and job creation in the energy sector,” he said. “Delays caused by permitting inefficiencies inhibit the essential components for low cost and modern energy that are needed to support economic competitiveness, and also threaten domestic exports towards national security.”

Blair said he is the chairman of the Council of State Governments Southern Office (CSG South) as well as the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC). He said he expects the remaining 14 states in the southern group of states to present similar resolutions. 

“With CSG South and SLC we’re attempting to send a clear message to the federal government that the federal government exists for the purposes of the state, the states do not exist for the purpose of the federal government. This resolution gives us that flexibility,” Blair said. 

Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 passed the Senate unanimously and heads to the House of Delegates. 

Resolutions are not binding, and the United States is currently producing record levels of oil and gas.