There is a grim resignation that America no longer builds, that our permitting system for energy projects is irreparably bloated and unnavigable. The nation that once constructed the Empire State Building in a year now leaves permit applications to languish for decades.
The window of opportunity for this Congress to fix this universally recognized challenge is shrinking, just as it did in 2024. Senators spent this past week oscillating between approaching an agreement and lamenting the deal’s death. In a surprising moment of consensus, senators announced last evening that they’ve landed on bill text.
The plan of punting permitting reform until after the election is irresponsible and puts our nation’s energy future in serious jeopardy. We can’t afford to play politics on an issue this critical. Done right, a permitting deal could improve energy affordability, reliability, and cleanliness. We will only get these benefits if the Senate chooses to act, however.
The status quo has failed both builders and consumers. The Biden administration halted new LNG export terminals and paused oil and gas leasing on federal land. The Trump administration issued stop-work orders against five offshore wind projects while routing every wind and solar permit across the interior secretary’s desk. In Nevada, the Greenlink North transmission line stalled for more than a year. The Grain Belt Express lost a conditional loan guarantee to political caprice.
When a single interregional transmission line can spend a decade in review, spend years more in court, and any single regional holdout can restart the entire process, building anything becomes untenable.
You can agree or disagree with one administration’s singular decisions, but we must admit that this system is broken. It’s a system only Congress can fix. When energy projects can live or die based on an executive’s whim, no sane person would finance or commit to a large-scale energy project.
That is what another permitting reform failure from Congress protects: the American energy system reduced to spoils for the victor every four years.
We have a blueprint for success. In July 2024, then-Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) moved a permitting bill out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a 15-4 bipartisan vote. Despite the senators and their respective staff putting an immense amount of time into building support, Congress flinched. The bill died that December when members blocked it over post-election quibbles. The hedging resulted in nothing but two more years of a permitting system that remains just as broken as it was, while energy prices continue to climb for Americans.
We cannot afford to repeat history in 2026. Senate leaders must come to the table and give permitting reform the floor time it deserves. The House has already done important work on the issue, including passage of the SPEED Act, with an amendment blocking the executive branch from revoking energy permits after approval.
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There is precedent for Congress acknowledging the problem and creating a regulatory environment that actually allows Americans to build again. It’s time for the Senate to do its job and release the bipartisan text.
Pass a deal now, send it to the president’s desk, and let’s get back to building.
Chris Barnard is the president of the American Conservation Coalition, the largest conservative environmental grassroots organization in the country. Follow him on X @ChrisBarnardDL.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
