Americans have one big problem with their energy bills: They’re too high.
Unfortunately, with demand surging and our grid working overtime to keep the American economy running, it doesn’t look like prices are going to come down in the near future.
There’s one main reason why this is happening: We’ve made it almost impossible to build new projects.
Our permitting process is broken. It keeps projects paralyzed for years, while your utility bills keep climbing and the grid struggles to stay afloat.
Fortunately, we have the resources, capital, and technology to be energy abundant and start bringing those prices down.
But to get there, we need to finally streamline our archaic permitting process.
[Tell your lawmaker to get the government out of the way and get energy prices down]
Our convoluted permitting processes make it practically impossible to build the projects we need to lower your energy prices.
An infamous example is the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.
Signed into law in 1970 as a straightforward way to review environmental impacts, NEPA has become a regulatory nightmare over the past 50 years.
On average, it takes 2.2 years to complete a NEPA review.
This means energy projects of all kinds, from transmission lines to brand new projects, get stuck in permitting limbo before a single shovel hits the ground.
Recently, AFP released a report on the status of energy projects in six states. The results might make you mad:
Permitting delays killed an estimated 50,000 jobs and cost the affected states around $75 billion.
That’s only six states — imagine how much money and how many jobs are lost to our nightmarish permitting system.
If we want lower prices and a more prosperous economy, we need to cut the Gordian knot that is our current permitting system.
Thankfully, we at AFP have some solutions.
Cutting the red tape that’s strangling American energy and infrastructure is vital if we want to lower our energy bills.
Bloated regulations, endless reviews, and activist lawsuits have delayed projects for years, and in some cases, decades.
Thankfully, there are two bills that will help us get there: The SPEED Act and the PERMIT Act.
The House passed the SPEED Act to “speed up” certain environmental reviews and to clarify that NEPA is a procedural statute meant to serve as a tool for reasonable review rather than a weapon for obstruction.
The bill would:
The goal is simple: restore NEPA to what it was meant to be — a fair process that protects the environment without blocking progress.
NEPA isn’t the only bottleneck. The Clean Water Act has also been stretched and misused to stall energy and grid expansion projects, creating a massive backlog of permits.
The PERMIT Act tackles that red tape by:
Together, these bills are a real step toward cutting red tape, stopping bureaucratic abuse, and making it easier for America to build up our energy infrastructure.
Cutting red tape is a critical step toward lowering energy costs. But it’s not the only reform we need.
Washington also needs to stop picking winners and losers in the energy market. When politicians hand out billions of your tax dollars to their preferred industries, they distort the market, propping up failing or inefficient companies at your expense.
That means that hardworking Americans end up paying twice: first through taxes, and then through higher monthly utility bills as the government props up energy sources that are more costly to you.
When Washington bets on politically connected companies, it’s everyday Americans who pay the price.
The real solution is to let markets work and industries compete and innovate.
To have lower bills and a more prosperous America, we need to get the government out of the way.
When Washington bureaucrats and politicians make it impossible to build new energy projects or funnel billions of dollars to well-connected green energy projects, everyday Americans lose.
It’s time to put an end to this.
If you’re tired of watching your energy bill climb, now is the time to act.
Visit ProsperityIsPossible.com to learn more about these reforms and add your name in support.
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