More energy, more jobs: America’s Road to Prosperity

Oct 2, 2025 by AFP

If you think your electricity bill is skyrocketing, you’re not wrong. Since 2020, electricity prices have been soaring.

Why? Burdensome regulations and tax subsidies make it harder for our country to produce the abundant, reliable, and affordable electricity it needs to thrive.

In many states, these regulations directly kill thousands of good-paying American jobs. If we want a more affordable life and more jobs, we need permitting reform.

That’s why Americans for Prosperity launched the “Road to Prosperity” tour and traveled to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. Over the last few weeks, we held rallies and events at local projects that have been delayed by red tape to call attention to the problem and drive support for reform in Washington.

AFP takes its energy reform message on the road.

What better place to kickstart our road to prosperity tour than … Prosperity, Pennsylvania, the energy capital of the Keystone State. 

AFP staff and activists visited the Enlow Fork Coal Mine in Prosperity, where they saw firsthand how regulations are stalling America’s global competitiveness and energy leadership.

For years, coal has provided reliable and affordable energy across the country. But more recently, environmental regulations and tax incentives have favored more irregular energy sources, making our electric grid less reliable and distorting the market signals for energy prices.

In order to unleash American energy abundance and power the future — especially in emerging and innovative sectors like AI and other groundbreaking technologies — our country must make good use of all energy resources, including coal and other fossil fuels.

Pennsylvania has the resources needed to unlock abundant energy, but we won’t be able to tap that potential with a permitting system that keeps getting in the way.

That’s why AFP–Pennsylvania State Director Emily Greene called on Congress to act now, emphasizing that reform could allow Pennsylvania and all 50 states an opportunity to lead the world in energy innovation.

Learn more about our stop in Pennsylvania by clicking on the post below:

From Prosperity, our tour took us to Cadiz, Ohio, where AFP State Director Donovan O’Neil joined us for a roundtable with the Ohio Coal Association on why permitting reform can help the economy and create more jobs for the people of the Buckeye State.

“We need to get these resources, this energy out of the ground and into our homes,” said Donovan at the roundtable.

He’s right.

Ohio families are seeing their costs up across the board, and the state’s economy needs action to help Ohio lead America to energy abundance.

After the Buckeye State, our team went back to the bus and drove to our third stop: Ghent, Kentucky.

There, AFP hosted an energy discussion and toured the Ghent power plant, a key site for the state’s energy infrastructure. This helps power the Bluegrass State’s powerful manufacturing industry, which ranks among the top in the nation and accounts for more than 12% of the state’s workforce.

State Sen. Gex Williams and AFP State Director Heather LeMire joined the conversation and noted how facilities like the Ghent plant provide reliable baseload power required to run the electrical grid.

How do we build a stronger, more innovative economy and increase access to affordable, reliable energy for Kentuckians and their manufacturing industry? Permitting reform.

Watch a clip of our event in the Bluegrass State below.

What Americans in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky know that might not grab the headlines is that overregulation in the energy sector has brought disastrous, real-world consequences across the country and threatened America’s energy leadership on the world stage.

A solution at hand

The good news is that a bipartisan, achievable, commonsense solution is possible.

A workable solution would:

  • Remove the multiagency bottleneck that currently complicates permitting.
  • Simplify the process with straightforward, predictable rules and timelines.

By fixing the permitting process, we can unleash America’s energy potential, create jobs for thousands of Americans, and enable more innovation in AI and other emerging technologies throughout our economy.

We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We’re just pushing for some logical, commonsense solutions to our regulatory mess that are obvious to the people we met on our bus in several states.

Here’s our plan to get America back on the road to prosperity.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree we desperately need to do this. At AFP, we’re mobilizing our nationwide army of volunteers to ensure America is ready to build a road to future prosperity.

It’s time to demand change! Tell your lawmaker to join the critical fight for permitting reform.

Sign the petition now!

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