FREEDOM Act

Key Points

• This bill, introduced by a group of lawmakers led by Mr. Harder of California, aims to speed up federal approvals for energy and mining projects. It sets a 90-day deadline for simple permits and a one-to-two-year limit for complex projects like power plants or mines. If agencies miss these deadlines, they could face legal action or fines.
• A new compensation program would be created within the Department of Energy. Energy companies would pay an annual fee to join, similar to insurance. If the government later cancels their permit or causes a project to fail through long delays, the company could receive money from a special fund to cover their lost investments.
• If a federal agency falls behind on its paperwork, the bill allows project owners to ask a court for permission to hire their own independent contractors to finish the environmental studies. The government would then have to pay for these contractors using money taken from the agency's own management budget.
• The policy limits the government's power to stop projects that are already mostly approved. Once a project has a substantial majority of its permits, federal officials generally cannot shut it down or cancel its authorizations unless there is an immediate, clear danger or a serious legal problem that has no other solution.
• For geothermal energy, the bill requires the government to hold lease sales every year instead of every two years. It also creates a new official called an Ombudsman to help solve disputes between companies and the government to keep renewable energy projects moving forward.
• On private land where the government owns less than half of the underground minerals, the bill removes the requirement for a federal drilling permit. Instead, companies would follow state rules, though they must still notify the federal government and pay any royalties they owe for the minerals they extract.