WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King today continued his push for America to rapidly move towards a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future. In a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee, King questioned Kelly Speakes-Backman, the Executive Vice President for Public Affairs at Invenergy, and Erik G. Milito, the President of the National Ocean Industries Association, about the need to judge energy permitting based on both its positive merits and negative consequences. Senator King suggested that all energy projects will have tradeoffs and that the government needs to balance short term impacts with long term clean energy goals.

“It's always bothered me that in [National Environmental Policy Act] and other kinds of environmental analysis, you're looking at the impact of the project, but there's no analysis of the benefit, the environmental benefit of the project. You can have a project with 100 units of environmental benefit and 8 units of detriment, but that's all the focus. Do you think it would be useful, important, and good policy to have NEPA and the other environmental laws that assess impact, to assess the positive virtues of the project as against any detriment?” Senator King asked.

Speakes-Backman responded, “Absolutely. As a former state regulator as well, it is the net benefits that really are what count. You have to take a look at both sides of the ledger, but the net benefits really are something that you need to take a look at. It's not just what the impact is, but what are the positive outputs.”

“Mr. Milito, do you agree?” King then asked.

“Oh, absolutely. There are so many factors that should be considered in a decision like this. Energy affordability, national security, employment. We oftentimes—” Milito responded.

King replied, “The world requires tradeoffs, does it not?”

Milito concluded, “Absolutely. You do need to balance all the factors and determine the best approach to moving forward with a project based on consideration of those factors.”

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator King has advocated for climate solutions that support Maine communities and has been one of the Senate’s most vocal advocates for improving energy technologies and development as a way to unlock America’s clean energy future. He has repeatedly emphasized the importance of permitting reform to unlocking the promise of clean energy development opportunities created in last year’s historic Inflation Reduction Act . In addition to a recent discussion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, he has stressed the importance of streamlining and speeding project timelines while maintaining environmental standards to the Secretaries of Energy and Interior.

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