Give them a hot-button topic that doesn’t actually affect the lives of ordinary people and politicians will waste no time hopping on and digging in. But when the issue is something of great significance to the rest of us — individuals and their employers — they drag their feet.

That is the case with permitting reform.

Last time it got any serious traction in Washington, D.C., former U.S. Sen. Joe Machin was leading the charge on the Energy Permitting Reform Act. Now, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is bringing lawmakers’ attention back to the matter in the hope that something will be on the president’s desk by the end of the year.

She’s working with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking Democratic member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. (She is chairwoman of that comm

See Full Page