On Aug. 12, 2024, Gov. Josh Shapiro introduced the Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development (SPEED) program, which was supposed to expedite the permitting process for businesses.

“Pennsylvanians deserve a state government that moves at the speed of business and processes their permits quickly to ensure Pennsylvanians receive a timely response,” Shapiro said.

Yet, SPEED was not as nimble as its acronym suggested. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the agency responsible for SPEED, did not start accepting applications until almost one year later.

So much for “at the speed of business.”

Nonetheless, the governor followed up with a flurry of actions. By the end of summer, the administration had issued at least a half dozen news releases, claiming progress in permitting and licensing issues. The DEP website lists eight programs, all intended to improve the state’s process for handling tens of thousands of permit applications annually.

DEP’s “PAyback” program, which promises refunds of application fees if approval deadlines are missed, reported that only two approvals were overdue as of September and that no fees had been refunded since the program’s launch nearly two years ago.

Still, the impact of Pennsylvania’s permitting reform remains selective at best.

“As far as the governor’s ‘get stuff done’ marketing goes, we’ve seen no improvement in the speed of approvals for permit applications or renewals,” says Jim Panaro, executive vice president of Robindale Energy. Robindale recovers and hauls millions of tons of fuel from mine-reclamation sites to its three waste-coal power plants in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Panaro said DEP had apparently taken quicker-than-usual action on an air-quality permit for a new natural gas-fired power plant at Homer City. However, he wondered whether that would have been the case for a less “politically sensitive” project.

In northwestern Pennsylvania, the fruits of permit reform have yet to be realized in the conventional oil and gas industry.

“The Pennsylvania permitting process has not improved at all for conventional oil and gas operators,” says Tyler Martin, environmental care coordinator for Cameron Energy, in Warren County. “Sometimes there are still unnecessary delays.”

For example, the state’s process for identifying potential effects on endangered species has become more difficult, according to reports from both Martin and oil and gas driller Tim Howard from neighboring McKean County. Howard questions why his company needs to go through the process on land it already owns when there is no such requirement for a landowner building a home.

The endangered species regulation led Northampton Fuel Supply, near Wilkes-Barre, to relocate more than 2,000 cubic yards of rock, leftover from previous mining activities, to create bat habitats. “We were fortunate to have the material available,” said Hank Zielinski, Northampton’s vice president.

Regarding permits, Zielinski says DEP appears to do its best to balance conflicting demands. But staffing shortages have contributed to delays in permit renewals. He expects to test the state’s procedures when Northampton files this fall for the first time in seven years an application for a new surface-mine permit.

“My biggest concern is the retirement of experienced professionals at DEP who are familiar with the issues and share our interest in cleaning up waste-coal sites,” he said.

While Pennsylvania’s permitting successes remain limited, some glimmers of hope have been detected by Robindale Energy’s Panaro, who reports a positive “shift in attitude” on the part of federal regulators since the election of President Donald Trump. When DEP takes its lead from the new leadership at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators “have become more reasonable,” says Panaro.

For instance, two Robindale Energy plants had been under pressure to install $600 million in pollution controls based on a questionable claim that their emissions contributed to hazy air on a few days a year in Virginia and New Jersey. Panaro says “the conversation has gone away” in recent months, although regulatory agencies haven’t issued a definitive ruling yet.

Robindale Energy has 20 years’ worth of fuel to fire its plants, limestone feedstock for pollution controls, and disposal space for ash. But the regulatory certainty to assure decades of operation remains heavily dependent on the political will of state and national leaders.

But rather than deal with the ever-changing winds at the federal level, Pennsylvania lawmakers–Shapiro included–must stop paying lip service to “moving at the speed of business” and enact genuine, universal regulatory reform. No more piecemeal approach that selectively picks and chooses winners in the marketplace. No more gimmicky acronyms that don’t produce results.

Instead, Pennsylvania businesses need an efficient and predictable regulatory environment–one that genuinely moves at the speed of business.

Gordon Tomb is a senior fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation.