Young Americans don’t need another lecture about how to live more cheaply. They need an economy capable of producing more of what they need. Electricity bills are climbing. Buying a first home can seem impossibly distant. Even young professionals with decent salaries delay moving out, building savings, and starting families. Several forces drive those costs, but one is hiding in plain sight: America has made it extraordinarily difficult to build.
As Congress returns following the midterms, lawmakers have an opening. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, introduced in September by senators from both parties, would speed federal reviews of energy and infrastructure projects. It is an early test of whether affordability is a governing principle or another political slogan.
Environmental protection and indefinite delay are not the same thing.
Permitting sounds like a distant, bureaucratic concern until a power plant or transmission line gets tied up for years. Lengthy environmental reviews, overlapping requirements, and litigation can hold up projects long after developers have shown they are technically and economically viable. Those delays raise costs and discourage new investment in an economy that needs more power.
The bill would revise environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and parts of the Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act. It would ease approvals for certain interstate transmission lines and narrow the grounds on which states could withhold water-quality certifications under the Clean Water Act.
States have legitimate interests in protecting water and other natural resources. But a review process must reach a decision. Environmental protection and indefinite delay are not the same thing.
Consider SunZia, a roughly 550-mile transmission line carrying electricity from New Mexico to Arizona. Development began in 2008. Construction did not begin until 2023, after years of permitting disputes and challenges involving federal lands and historic sites, and requiring the approval of several federal and state agencies. The project finally entered service in June. Nearly two decades passed between its conception and its completion.
That does not make every objection frivolous. It does show what happens when an essential piece of infrastructure must navigate layers of approval before anyone can benefit from the power it delivers.
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New York’s Valley Lateral pipeline offers another example. In 2017, the state denied a water-quality certification for the nearly 8-mile line meant to supply the CPV Valley Energy Center. Federal regulators concluded that New York had missed the statutory deadline, and a federal appeals court upheld that finding. The power plant has been operating since 2018, but its path to operation involved a costly fight over which agency had the last word.
Young Americans are especially exposed to the consequences. They are less likely to own homes or have accumulated enough savings to absorb higher costs. A $200 increase in monthly housing and utility bills means something different to a 25-year-old trying to get established than it does to a wealthy retiree with a paid-off house.
The housing problem has its own permitting obstacles. Federal energy reforms will not, by themselves, overturn restrictive local zoning or speed every apartment project. But the principle is the same: When government makes building harder, it makes necessities scarcer and more expensive. New York City voters approved measures this week to centralize building permitting and shorten approval timelines for certain city projects. The appetite for practical reform is hardly confined to Washington.
For decades, America became richer by building factories, highways, homes, power plants, and businesses. The next generation deserves the same opportunity. Young Americans need more reliable electricity, more places to live, and an economy that can grow without running into a wall of paperwork.
Permitting reform is a Gen Z issue. If Washington wants to make America more affordable, it should start by making America easier to build.
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[H/T Blaze Media]
