House Republicans passed bipartisan legislation that would overhaul how federal agencies permit pipelines, highways and other large infrastructure projects on Thursday, despite little Democratic support after changes targeting wind and solar projects pushed by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy and other conservative members.

Speeding up infrastructure projects has been a rare point of bipartisan agreement in Washington, with federal agencies sometimes taking as long as a decade to approve major projects. Pressure to act has increased over the past year as states like Texas rush to expand their power grids to serve a flood of new data centers powering artificial intelligence technology.

As recently as last week, many moderate Democrats seemed to be on board with the SPEED Act, which aims to overhaul 1970s-era environmental laws to get projects approved more quickly. 

But the bipartisan agreement fell apart this week as Roy and other members of the Freedom Caucus forced Republican leadership to remove a provision that would have prevented presidents from blocking projects that have already received their permits — as President Donald Trump has done with offshore wind farms and former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama did with pipeline and mining projects. Roy and other members of the Freedom Caucus have long opposed the expansion of wind and solar energy in the United States.

"The driving force here is to try and free up the American people and free enterprise to be able to produce adequate and abundant energy for the American people," Roy said on the House floor Thursday. "We need to prevent agencies from keeping projects in permitting limbo."

The bill passed 221-96, with 11 Democrats in support, including U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, a former oil attorney who has long pushed for permitting reform. U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, of South Texas, and Marc Veasey, of Fort Worth, also voted for it.

Fletcher opposed the change pushed by the Freedom Caucus but said she voted for the bill "to keep the process moving."

"Uncertainty and instability are holding back important work we need to do in the United States to modernize and build energy infrastructure of all kinds," she said. "I will continue to work on this bill to remove problematic provisions."

The legislation had initially drawn widespread support from energy companies, with everyone from oil lobbyists to wind farm developers angling to reduce wait times for permitting.

In a letter earlier this month, a coalition that included the American Petroleum Institute and the American Clean Power Association praised the legislation as "reforming a permitting system that too often chills investment, creates uncertainty, and increases costs and delays for essential energy infrastructure projects."

After Republicans on the House Rules Committee approved an amendment preserving Trump's ability to cancel infrastructure projects Tuesday, clean power lobbyists withdrew their support for the bill.

"Our support for permitting reform has always rested on one principle: fixing a broken system for all energy resources. The amendment adopted last night violate that principle,"  American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said in a statement Wednesday. "Technology neutrality wasn't just good policy—it was the political foundation that made reform achievable."

Trump is a fierce opponent of offshore wind farms, arguing they mar coastal landscapes — he sued unsuccessfully to block construction of turbines near a golf course he owns in Scotland.

Since taking office in January, the president has banned permitting and federal reviews for offshore wind, bringing projects under development to a halt. And in August the administration issued a stop-work order on a wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was 80% complete.

A federal judge lifted to stop work order a month later.

The legislation will now go to the U.S. Senate, where a bipartisan coalition that includes Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the ranking member on that committee, are also working on a permitting reform bill.

U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., a longtime advocate for permitting reform who voted against the legislation, accused Republicans Thursday of trying to, "score political points instead of doing what's best for the country."

"Thoughtful permitting reform is meaningless if the executive branch is allowed to revoke issued permits for no good reason," he said. "This is not the final draft. There's more work to do."

View this article in the Houston Chronicle.