The US government is on the brink of another shutdown, which would throw a wrench in both parties’ plans for a badly needed overhaul of energy permitting. Congress looks unlikely to agree on a budget by Wednesday. If that happens, action on some key energy policies would slow down, including work at the Treasury Department to finalize new rules on tax credits for hardware with foreign-made components, and Commerce Department investigations into tariff evasion by solar manufacturers in South Asia.
A shutdown will also delay all of Congress’s legislative agenda for the rest of the year, said Emily Tucker, vice president of energy at the research and consulting firm Capstone. That means less time to negotiate any agreement on permitting reform, which should have been the next big energy item on the agenda. “The longer a shutdown goes,” she said, “the less likely it is that Congress will get a robust permitting reform bill passed.”
