Today we are facing an unprecedented opportunity to shape America’s economic future. We can reshore American manufacturing, take the lead on an AI revolution and establish a foundation for the most robust and secure economy our nation has ever seen – but we have to be able to fuel that future. We must leverage America’s core competitive advantage – our vast domestic energy supplies – and commit to building essential energy infrastructure to meet this substantive demand growth.
Factions that stand in the way of new energy infrastructure don’t have their facts straight. It is a false narrative to argue that new investments in pipes and transmission will impose prohibitive costs on customers. Simply put, building new infrastructure will keep energy affordable and reliable, which is what families and businesses expect and deserve; but we must move past the dysfunctional permitting system that is standing in our way.
In 1930, we built the Empire State Building in 410 days. Today, the permitting process to build such a project would take years, maybe even decades, and impose insurmountable costs.
How did we get to this self-inflicted impasse? American infrastructure suffers from a byzantine permitting process that imposes unnecessary and detrimental delays and a legal system that bogs down challenges to new projects for years in court. Recently, both Congress and the Supreme Court have had to step in to greenlight badly needed infrastructure. Until we implement real permitting reform at every level, we are our own worst enemy.
The key to unlocking the opportunities of Americas economic future in the long term relies on our ability to expand pipeline and storage infrastructure without getting tied up in endless litigation and duplicative environmental reviews. Smart and modern regulation at the state and local level coupled with federal permitting reform can make infrastructure expansion not only achievable, but affordable for all Americans.
As the President and CEO of America’s largest natural gas trade association, I can proudly say that our industry is already working with regulators and policy makers to help ensure customers and communities get the affordable and reliable natural gas they want and expect.
There is good news – America has an abundant supply of energy – with more than 100 years of domestic natural gas – and an energy industry eager to invest to underpin this economic revolution while maintaining reliability and affordability. And for those who caution about the environmental impact of increasing energy consumption there is more good news: none of this need to come at the expense of reducing emissions. In fact, it is quite the opposite – the natural gas industry has reduced emissions by 70% since 1990 while delivering more natural gas to a growing customer base every year.
The consequences of not reforming this cumbersome permitting process are borne by working class Americans. In regions of our country where government policies have prevented investment in new pipeline infrastructure, families are paying higher utility rates compared to their neighbors. Much of New England relies on natural gas imports rather than available gas from as little as 100 miles away and at a price that can be between two and five times what other Americans face. That defies common sense and practicality.
Facts matter in this debate, and the fact is natural gas is the most affordable source of energy in the United States and is expected to remain significantly more affordable than other fuel for at least the next 30 years. As a result, the industry adds one new customer every minute of every day and 21,000 businesses to the natural gas system each year.
Without question, access to natural gas makes a massive difference for household budgets. An average family saves $1,132 in annual energy bills compared to its all-electric home. The data clearly shows this advantage for natural gas is heightened in colder regions. Overcoming current infrastructure bottlenecks to expand our state-of-the-art infrastructure to our communities and engines of growth offer huge payoff for our economy and for families alike.
From state regulators to federal legislators, it is of the utmost importance that policymakers act boldly to allow the American energy industry to build, innovate and expand. Congress must pass meaningful and durable permitting reform including limiting the ability of unaffected entities from launching baseless legal challenges against any and all projects.
Energy in all forms will benefit from modernizing the arcane permitting process – from renewable energy to geothermal to natural gas – we all stand together to meet our nation’s most critical challenge and strategic opportunity. Failure is not an option unless we fail to change.
Permitting reform will empower the economy and get the heavy hand of bureaucracy out of the way. With Congress, we can drive economic progress for this country, secure affordable energy for homeowners and businesses and win the race for a competitive economic advantage. If we streamline our outdated permitting processes, we can provide a brighter future for American families, safeguard our national security, lower costs for American households and build our economy of the future. Imagine that.
Karen Harbert is CEO of the American Gas Association.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
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Regulatory mania. The end result of allowing unelected committees to do your thinking for you.
If it saves one life it will be worth it. Yeah, right.
It’s all about the flip flopping wot confuses the deplorables-
Government’s flip-flop policies putting motorists off buying electric vehicles
…which was nothing compared to the confusion of the omniscient overlords-
(520) Electrify everything! Octopus boss on Britain’s energy problems – YouTube
Octopus is just another scam artist pushing heat pumps, solar panels and batteries.
Wrong. Consumers are avoiding EVs for a host of reasons which have nothing whatsoever to do with government policy. Among those reasons are: dismal resale value; limited battery range; battery safety and flammability issues; the very high cost of maintenance and repair because of batteries. It should also be noted that most of the car-buying public cannot ever use EVs because of unavailability of recharging.
Government policy is irrelevant to all of these issues.
Anything that starts off that ignorantly has already lost me.
American manufacturing is better than it ever has been, in value produced. Manufacturing jobs have been shrinking for a long long time because American workers are more productive, and that is because of capital investment in better factories. This pushes the less productive jobs overseas — the boring, humdrum jobs that can’t pay well because the products produced are cheap.
So anyone who demands we bring back jobs from overseas is demanding that we bring back the crap jobs that are best done by cheap unskilled labor, precisely the kinds of jobs that no American wants and no investor will create.
Furthermore, if those jobs are brought back because exorbitant tariffs make them too expensive to import, then they must perforce displace more productive jobs. By definition, the reshored jobs are less efficient, waste resources, raise prices, and cost more to reshore than the value produced.
This is simple common sense. It’s not even Econ 101 level. It is NOT how to build a robust and secure economy.
You want a robust economy? Get the government out of the way. Stop picking favorites — markets do that far better and more flexibly. China’s economy is sinking because it is a command economy planned and controlled ineptly by the CCP. The American economy is already miles ahead in the efficiency and value departments. You won’t make it better yet by dictating industrial policy from the White House.
You don’t beat someone by imitating their mistakes.
Your comment reminds me of the song “American Made” by The Oak Ridge Boys.
My boots were made in China. Wooden matches are made in the Republic of Chili. Many years ago, The Diamond Match Company purchased large tracts of white pine timberland in Pend Oreille County, Idaho for match production. These things would be about 5 times more expensive if made in the USA.
US tools don’t seem to be cost-effective any more, by and large. I have US hand tools and measuring equipment that belonged to my grandfather and father. Excellent quality, still perfect for the job 100 years later. Utica drop forge and tool, Starrett, Stanley etc.
These days, even US companies import tools – local manufacture is apparently uneconomic. Things change – that’s life. Nothing wrong with taking advantage of value for money. Buying local is my preferred option, but not at ridiculous prices – particularly if the goods are imported anyway!
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been meaning to go to Lowes and change out my failing, 45 year old, Craftsman 1/2″ socket for months now. AI says I can do it, but will walk out with a “modern equivalent”. So, my workshop is inexorably becoming Harbor Freightier every year…
Note to the author, Karen Harbert: Contact the bird people at the Audubon Society. They think gas is evil, like witches, and needs to be eliminated. They favor wind and solar – both hazards to birds.
Ed aims carefully at foot and pulls trigger-
Fury as Ed Miliband’s £4bn net zero project could use Chinese steel
To be fair, that’s not all Ed’s fault; successive UK governments have been shutting down UK industry in general & Iron/Steel production in particular for decades. ( Ed Milli-willy is still a traitor & should be prosecuted as such )
We’ve offshored all the ‘dirty industries’ so we can claim to be ‘green & clean’, & sold off most infrastructure (electricity, gas, railways, water, sewage, steel … ) predominantly to foreign investors and firms.
We own nothing & are not happy. (:-((
Elections have consequences!
No possible bias there, just independent, objective, analysis.
Yeah, right, We’re all ignorant and gullible.
Karen – Thanks for an excellent article with a lot of common sense. However there are two significant points that you should note::
One other problem that really needs to be addressed: The proliferation of countless NGO’s whose
funding often comes from ill intentioned people who use them for litigation against all sorts of things, even election integrity. This in itself has certainly contributed to the present regulatory quagmire. One question: Do we really need such orgs, and why should the government give them tax free status when they are not benefitting society. Transparency is desperately needed with respect to their actions, and their financing. If this isn’t possible get rid of them.
How many ngo’s are active in China? We all would like to know.
Would like more specificity on these permitting smooth outs. Permitting reform has become the new “waste, fraud, and abuse”. A gauzy, 30,000 foot mantra.
I can see elimination of duplicative requirements – it still takes dealing with 26 separate government entities to operate a California offshore platform. But there should be MORE emphasis on those that really matter. FYI, those 26 entities didn’t prevent the corrosion/erosion of the Plains All American oil pipeline that ended up shutting in most of the previously mentioned platforms.
Pre construction permitting should require a realistic, cradle to grave, assessment of maintenance and retirement costs. Maybe even with P90 costs, since that’s where most of these projects end up with. And part of the permitting requirements should be cash in fist held back for such costs, as they are incurred. Then, marginal projects wouldn’t get built (a good thing), and the rest would end up benefitting us more than with our current permitting processes.
Yes, renewable projects too. Including the additional grid costs – which should also be part of non renewable project cost assessments..
When the last lawyer is strangled with the entrails of the last environmentalist.
Very nice, permitting and regulation clearly need reform. Something else has to happen Karen has fallen into the trap of greasing the rails for her industry and worthless renewables. Wind, solar and storage need to go away, they can’t support the grid or a modern society, everybody knows that except Karen I guess. What we need to promote is gas, coal and nuclear but somehow Karen overlooked two reliable, safe and affordable options while promoting worthless renewables that is just dumber than dumb.