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US NEWS 
By Ari Natter, Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Erik Wasson
The Trump administration indicated that an offer to advance stalled wind and solar projects as part of negotiations with Democrats on legislation to speed energy permits could be taken off the table if they don’t swiftly agree to a deal.
A White House official said Wednesday evening that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress had proposed a bipartisan offer in good faith, but threatened that it would be revoked if the Democrats didn’t accept it as is.
A Senate Democratic aide, who was granted anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, said the White House’s characterization was incorrect and that the parties remained engaged in trying to reach an accord.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in a statement that it was “pretty standard for legislators and stakeholders to want to read a major bill and propose improvements.”
“We don’t even have final bill text to share with colleagues,” Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate environment panel, said. “The White House conceded the House would likely not be back before the election to pass the bill, so what’s the rush?”
Whitehouse, who with New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, is one of the chief Democratic negotiators on permitting reform, told reporters in Washington Wednesday that he wanted more clarity on a White House overture to release some held-up wind and solar projects in an effort to bring more Democrats on board.
The Trump administration is offering to allow the advance of some 30 wind projects of roughly 300 currently suspended pending Pentagon approval, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
“Democrats need to accept this gesture of goodwill from the White House and take the win,” Miranda Dabney, a spokeswoman for Senator Alan Armstrong, an Oklahoma Republican, said Wednesday on X.
An accord between Democratic and Republican Senate negotiators could be a major win for the oil and gas industry, which has long sought to accelerate the federal permitting process and scale back environmental reviews that can lead to years of delay and hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs.
An agreement also would benefit the renewable energy sector, which wants to speed up approvals for the new electric transmission lines needed to bring power from far-flung wind and solar farms to cities and industrial users.
Earlier: Trump Refunds to Cancel Offshore Wind Projects Total $4 Billion
Still, the administration’s offer could cover a small amount of the projects that have been halted during President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Some developers have already pulled offshore wind investments in the face of administration opposition.
Permitting reform in the US has been an elusive goal for years, including during the Biden administration, and has been a top priority for the Trump administration, too. But despite the latest developments in negotiations, the prospect of legislation making its way through Congress is highly uncertain with the US midterm elections just weeks away.
Whitehouse also said the “structure of a deal” had been reached. But he added key details, such as finalizing the text of the agreement and an “agreed pathway for a vote that will be successful for everyone,” remain outstanding.
Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said negotiators were close but “not quite there yet.”
— With assistance from Brandon Harden
(Adds statement from senator in fourth graph.)
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