The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently expanded Nevada’s electricity grid by giving NV Energy the greenlight to build the 472-mile long Greenlink West Transmission Project that stretches from Reno to Las Vegas. Greenlink West will connect dozens of solar projects to the grid, making it pivotal to Nevada’s clean-energy plan.

BLM received more than 200 public comments on the Greenlink West Draft Environmental Impact Statement, but was able to complete the environmental impact statement in just two years. Nationwide, transmission line permitting typically takes much longer due to public opposition.  

The nation’s grid capacity needs to more than double for the U.S. to reach its goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035. Doubling the 260,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that underpin the United States’ electric grid will require fixing our currently broken permitting process and a massive investment of minerals. 

Although Greenlink West is important to Nevada, it’s a small step toward doubling the country’s grid capacity. About 550 Greenlink West-sized transmission projects are needed to double the nation’s grid. It will take decades to permit and build these new transmission lines, making the administration’s clean electricity by 2035 goal unachievable. 

The Center of the American Experiment’s recently published report, “Mission Impossible: Mineral Shortages and the Broken Permitting Process Put Net Zero Goals Out of Reach,” shows that new transmission lines aren’t the only projects that cannot be built fast enough to reach the 2035 goal. Permitting obstacles impede mining the lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, rare earths and other minerals used to manufacture the batteries and motors that power electric vehicles, and to make solar panels and wind turbines.

The country’s dysfunctional permitting process cannot respond to the skyrocketing demand for minerals or provide the electricity needed for power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers. Without expedited permitting, transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy will take decades during which energy shortfalls, high energy costs and mineral shortages will be commonplace. 

The Biden-Harris administration’s recently finalized National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule will exacerbate permitting delays and spawn litigation that will further thwart the energy transition — especially in Nevada, where the federal government controls more than 85 percent of the land. Fifty-four years of lawsuits and judicial activism have transformed NEPA into a game of gotcha that project opponents effectively use to challenge projects in federal court and send them back to the drawing board. Litigation contesting agencies’ NEPA decisions for proposed fossil fuel and clean-energy projects is especially common, delaying them by an average of 3.9 years.

Permitting delays are dangerous because they make the U.S. dependent on foreign countries for the fuels, critical minerals, raw materials and manufactured goods essential to our energy future, national security, technology and economic well-being. The U.S. currently depends on mineral imports for more than 49 minerals, obtaining many of these minerals from China and other adversaries. China dominates the entire EV battery mineral supply chain including mining, mineral processing, producing battery components and manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. China also controls the mineral supply chains for solar panels and wind turbines.

Congress recently enacted, and President Joe Biden has signed, a NEPA work-around for semiconductor projects in the Building Chips in America Act of 2023. Recognizing the urgency to increase domestic chip production, this law exempts certain semiconductor projects from NEPA. 

Congress needs to overhaul NEPA to loosen its chokehold on our entire economy. Exempting transmission lines, alt-energy projects and domestic mines for the minerals essential for the energy transition from NEPA would be a good start.  

As a policy act, NEPA does not include environmental protection standards. Other federal laws such as the Clean Air and the Clean Water acts establish stringent environmental standards that govern projects. Consequently, eliminating the time-consuming NEPA process would not change environmental protection requirements or diminish environmental protection.

Nevada’s stringent environmental regulations make Nevada’s lithium, copper and other mines among the cleanest and safest mines in the world. Nevada is thus the perfect place to exempt mineral projects from NEPA. Future projects exempted from NEPA would still have to adhere to rigorous environmental protection, workplace safety and reclamation bonding requirements. 

The commitment to protect the environment and ensure a safe workplace at Nevada’s mines stands in marked contrast to mines elsewhere. Some cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the world gets 65 percent of its cobalt, and nickel mines in Indonesia, which provides one-half of the world’s nickel, have little regard for the environment or their workers. The U.S. has a moral obligation to procure the minerals needed for the energy transition from mines that do not damage the environment or exploit workers.

Solving the permitting problem is only part of the answer. The Biden-Harris administration must stop putting lands in Nevada and elsewhere off-limits to mining. BLM’s new Western Solar Plan pits solar energy against mining on 31 million acres. BLM’s new Public Lands Rule creates a novel leasing process designed to prevent development. These policies are so harmful that Congress has introduced measures to block BLM’s Public Lands Rule and to demand that BLM withdraw the Western Solar Plan. In its recently published Greater Sage-Grouse Final Environmental Impact Statement, BLM chose an alternative that prohibits wind and solar development and limits mining and other land uses on more than 34.5 millions of acres across 10 Western states. Nevada shoulders a large portion of these land use restrictions with nearly 12 million acres in Southern Nevada where solar development is prioritized and about 9.7 million acres in Northern and central Nevada where wind, solar, transmission lines and other projects cannot be readily developed.  

Permitting that takes years to complete is perpetuating supply chain vulnerabilities and thwarting the nation’s clean-energy objectives. Congress’ recent action to exempt semiconductor projects from NEPA is an admission that NEPA is too broken to fix in time to reduce our risky reliance on China for chips. Congress should enact similar NEPA exemptions to reduce our dangerous dependency on China for minerals and expedite permitting for transmission lines. 

President-elect Donald Trump and the 119th Congress have a tremendous opportunity and a lot of work ahead to undo the Biden-Harris administration’s energy and environmental roadblocks and to reduce the nation’s reliance on imported minerals. Swift directives through executive orders, to be followed by congressional action, could loosen burdensome NEPA requirements that currently impede development of important critical minerals and energy infrastructure projects.

The incoming Trump administration is well-poised to make national security and economic strength a clear priority by supporting domestic mineral projects, strengthening the power grid and eliminating the permitting obstacles that put energy and minerals independence and grid reliability out of reach. 

Debra W. Struhsacker is a Reno-based independent environmental permitting and government relations consultant, one of the founders of the Women’s Mining Coalition, and a co-author of Mission Impossible: Mineral Shortages and the Broken Permitting Process Put Net Zero Goals Out of Reach.

The Nevada Independent welcomes informed, cogent rebuttals to opinion pieces such as this. Send them to [email protected].