Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Wall Street Is Ready To Invest In America’s Energy Future. If Washington Permits It.

(Photorush / Wikimedia Commons)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune just put permitting reform on the Senate agenda before Election Day. This news comes as next week, America’s leading investors, policymakers and energy developers will fill Manhattan for Climate Week NYC to advance the technologies that can meet America’s surging power demand. American innovators are transforming nuclear energy, drilling geothermal wells faster and more efficiently, and bringing once-novel energy technologies closer to commercial reality. While American technology has rapidly improved, our permitting system has not. Fixing that should be at the top of everyone’s agenda.

There is a path there to do something that is long overdue for the country.

Wall Street has the money. American innovators have the talent and technology. Customers need the power. What is missing is a permitting system that gives investors the confidence that the government will responsibly approve vital infrastructure projects required to build the next generation of American energy.

The United States knows how to build. It took just five years to build the Hoover Dam, four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and just over one year to build the Empire State Building. Today, obtaining a transmission line permit takes longer than a college degree.

Permitting in America currently favors those who block over those who build. Delays and hostile litigation keep capital on the sidelines, stifling American innovation and hindering the domestic energy supply chain. Investors already accept genuine risk on construction and first-of-a-kind projects. What they shouldn’t have to accept is a permitting process that piles years of needless uncertainty on top of it.

The SunZia transmission line, a 550-mile high-voltage link carrying power across New Mexico and Arizona, is just one example. It took 18 years of development to bring the project online. Construction took less than three years, while planning, review and litigation consumed 15 years.

Innovation was never the hard part; the bureaucratic process is. Advanced nuclear developers are breaking ground, geothermal companies are drilling wells that would have been unprofitable a decade ago, and carbon capture projects are ready for Final Investment Decisions. What stands between development and deployment is a federal permitting process that grinds critical infrastructure development to a halt and blocks the commercialization of new technologies. Delays that last years make projects more expensive and push critical energy investment overseas, increasing rates and risking U.S. economic and national security.

These consequences are the result of a broken permitting system and are a barrier to investment. At the very time that investors are ready to pour capital into American energy infrastructure, our permitting system makes it harder to put that money to work.

Electric companies plan to invest $1.4 trillion in the grid through 2030, building on 14 years of record-setting investment. Private funds hold roughly $92 billion in undeployed energy capital, with one fund closing last month at $8.1 billion, well above its initial $5 billion target. America cannot lose these opportunities.

We know what is possible when smart policy and American innovation work together. Following Congressional action to modernize nuclear licensing, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in around 18 months, ahead of schedule and 11% under budget.

These outcomes show what America’s unmatched private-sector talent can accomplish when policy keeps pace with innovation. The Supreme Court has already emphasized the limits of NEPA review and the deference courts owe agencies in determining the scope of environmental reviews. What’s missing is a comprehensive permitting policy.

The solutions in front of Congress are clear: modernize NEPA to reduce duplicative reviews, reform judicial review to limit delay-driven litigation and set enforceable deadlines that cannot be ignored. The House already passed these provisions in bipartisan legislation, including the SPEED Act from Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican.

Seventy percent of voters back permitting modernization, and powering the next generation of American dominance will take more energy. The best thing Washington can do is cut the red tape and let Wall Street unleash the capital needed to let America build.

Jeremy Harrell is the chief executive officer of ClearPath and ClearPath Action, DC-based conservative clean energy organizations advancing policies that accelerate innovation to reduce global emissions. 

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.