But we need to permit pipelines for the U.S. to dominate!

Despite multiple near deals, 2024 — and the 118^th Congress — ended without passing legislation that would streamline America’s permitting process for infrastructure. 

It’s a shame, and not just because all Americans would benefit from increasing domestic energy production. We could feel the downstream effects from this failure for generations to come if the data centers driving advancements in artificial intelligence are built overseas because we don’t build the critical infrastructure required to support their operations. The U.S. has the energy resources to meet this need, but a byzantine permitting system coupled with fervent opposition to human advancement makes building infrastructure nearly impossible.

With AI expertise likely the defining differentiator for nations in the coming years, ensuring the U.S. has the energy it needs to become the undisputed leader in the new technology is imperative, and it must be our elected officials – not over-zealous NGO’s – that decide our fate. Simply put, to ensure America’s long-term competitiveness, Congress must prioritize passing permitting reform.

The need for change is clear. U.S. natural gas is the cleanest, most abundant, and most reliable energy source available to meet AI demand. Plus, it can act like a low-cost battery when weather dependent resources are available. However, demand for natural gas has increased 43% since 2013 while the infrastructure to support the demand has only increased 25%. Without action, the gap between demand and infrastructure will grow as AI tools become more critical to the U.S. in a competitive world marketplace. AI could drive a 160% increase in data center power demand by 2030, according to a 2024 report from Goldman Sachs.  

The AI revolution will happen; the question is where will it be developed and controlled for generations to come? Infrastructure will be a critical determinant.

With our innovation and grit, it takes only six to nine months to build a natural gas pipeline safely and in a way that has little environmental footprint but at least four years to get such a project approved by government agencies. America’s permitting system is labyrinthian by any reasonable measure, requiring projects to receive duplicative approvals from dozens of federal and state agencies. There are also significant litigation risks from groups weaponizing regulatory loopholes and misusing environmental statutes to delay and cancel projects. Virtually every pipeline project encounters these costly and time-consuming delays. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are three key steps to streamlining the regulatory process:

1. Policymakers need to empower the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Currently, a single activist state can block a proposed interstate natural gas project, regardless of the benefits it would bring, through an abuse of the Clean Water Act’s 401 review process. Bringing this process under FERC would prevent any one state from stopping a regional project that has been demonstrated to be in the public interest.
2. Congress needs to reform judicial review, empowering the courts to fairly review the actions and decisions of government agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Protection Agency and FERC, to cut back on lawfare that leaves good projects languishing for months, if not years. The best way to do this is to require that a permit denial be supported by clear and convincing evidence. 
3. Lastly — but equally as important — is fixing the remedy allowed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a procedural statute that activist groups wrongly use to delay, deny, and cancel energy infrastructure. NEPA litigation should be limited to the purpose of the statute – to inform the public, and defects in a NEPA analysis should only result in further disclosures, not in a delay to a project.  

These reforms would allow interstate natural gas pipelines as well as other energy infrastructure like transmission lines to be built to meet demand. We must come together to ensure the Clean Water Act, NEPA, and judicial review of agency decisions are working for the American people – not preventing progress and competitiveness in the name of politics. 

It may be tempting to look to weather dependent energy sources like wind and solar, not natural gas, to fill the growing demand for energy. Data centers, though, operate around the clock and regardless of the weather, require a consistent, reliable power source that does not stop when the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing. For that matter, so does your home and your place of work. Natural gas will meet this need — and keep the lights on in American homes and businesses.

The timing is perfect for permitting reform. Members of Congress have the broad strokes of a law written, and President Trump has indicated he will support the effort. Shortly after his swearing in, Trump signed an energy emergency executive order, recognizing the strategic value of American energy. . This is a start but must be supported by Congressional action to codify permitting reforms and prevent future administrations from blocking forms of energy infrastructure they do not like.

Pipelines power America, and our country and its citizens have reaped the benefits of this large-scale infrastructure for years. We should not take this historical benefit for granted and let competing countries rapidly build out their own infrastructure to capture tomorrow’s gold. Real permitting reform will put the U.S. on a path to meet the ever-growing need for energy and a path to achieve human flourishing. The changes will cost taxpayers nothing while paying a world of dividends.