The responsibility for reviving permitting reform efforts in Congress rests with the White House providing “credible confidence that the nonsense will stop,” he said during a hearing on permitting reform. “This is legislative versus executive, an executive that won’t honor its constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law.”During the hearing, Capito said a permitting reform bill must be bipartisan to be effective. It must also be “project neutral” and give project developers “predictability, consistency and finality” in securing permits. Whitehouse said permitting reform should require early stakeholder engagement and improvements to the federal interagency review process. In comparison, permitting for an airport project in Australia that Bechtel built took less than three years and a 700-MW hydro project in Canada took two-and-a-half years, he said.