Bipartisanship Can (Literally) Reenergize Our Nation
Both sides of the aisle are laser-focused on energy. Democrats are keyed in on green tech and want to shift our economy in a sustainable direction as quickly as possible. Republicans, on the other hand, see global economic and geopolitical trends as further evidence that American energy independence is paramount. While lawmakers debate the right approach to energy policy, American Policy Ventures’ latest poll shows 75 percent of Democrats and Republicans supported the use of permitting reform as a bargaining chip in recent debt ceiling negotiations. With voters’ support, the deal struck by Speaker McCarthy and President Biden includes permitting provisions that offer a step in the right direction. However, as Speaker McCarthy noted, much more still needs to be done on this front.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed decades ago to protect our environment from hasty decision-making on new energy projects. While the intent remains important today, the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction. The Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) required by NEPA are going far beyond their original purpose. Rather than increasing the prioritization of environmental considerations in our decision-making processes for new projects, NEPA is essentially preventing effective decision-making from happening at all. The average time it takes to complete an EIS today, across all agencies, is 4.5 years. Some projects are dragged out far longer.
This is where the interests of Republicans and Democrats align. The transition to clean energy will not happen expeditiously if projects are tied down by red tape. The electricity produced from renewable sources needs to be effectively transported through countless miles of transmission lines, but we are far from having this infrastructure in place. In fact, is estimated that we will need to at least double our transmission capacity to accommodate our clean energy goals.
NEPA is even holding up clean sources themselves with projects like offshore wind turbines—18,581 Megawatts (MW) worth of offshore wind turbine production is held up in the permitting process, compared to 42 MW currently in operation. The White House recently acknowledged this in laying out its own priorities for permitting reform, with Senior Advisor John Podesta explaining that permitting for clean energy projects is, “plagued by delays and bottlenecks.”
Speeding up these processes would also go a long way in building American energy independence and this would have downstream effects on everything from supply chain resiliency to national security. Vital parts of our nation’s energy portfolio, like natural gas, are falling victim to the currently burdensome permitting process. Just look at the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia. The pipeline, which would carry natural gas to the mid and south-Atlantic regions, is over 90% complete but has been held up for years because of blocked permits. Keeping critical infrastructure projects like this in limbo blunts America’s competitive edge.
In this way, bipartisan compromise on permitting reform would be smart foreign policy as much as it would be smart domestic policy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a stark reminder for Europe and the world that any reliance on foreign sources of energy has major consequences. Lawmakers must not allow our nation to fall into that position. Legislative action to speed up our permitting process would help us shore up all of our domestic energy sources and lead the world as an energy superpower. This would undoubtedly strengthen our hand as we compete for the future with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Foreign policy-minded lawmakers often like to repeat the saying that politics stops at the water’s edge, meaning partisan bickering should never get in the way of shrewdly defending our national interests abroad. Permitting reform, however, shows that the line is not so clear as the water’s edge anymore. Partisan politics has been preventing us from doing the work at home needed to project our power and influence abroad. If we can’t build off of the progress made through the debt ceiling deal and find a way to pass more comprehensive permitting reforms, American leadership will fade. To tackle the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to the CCP, the world needs America at its best. It’s time we show them what that looks like.
Liam deClive-Lowe and Paolo Mastrangelo are the co-founders & co-presidents of American Policy Ventures, a new project which will actively work to support members of Congress working to find bipartisan solutions to our nation’s most pressing issues.
