America's Energy Costs Are Soaring. Permitting Reform Can Help.
Gas prices are climbing, utility bills are straining household budgets, and American families are feeling the pinch.
The numbers don’t lie:
Electricity prices jumped by almost 5% last year and average U.S. retail electricity prices are up by about 30% since 2010.
In 2024, one in three U.S. households reported skipping necessities, such as food or medicine, to pay household energy bills.
Retail electricity prices have steadily outpaced the rate of inflation since 2022.
These costs don't exist in a vacuum. When energy gets more expensive, everything else does too.
The Problem: What We Won't Build
Across the country, well-meaning permitting processes are exacerbating this problem.
Cumbersome regulations, extended agency delays, and yearslong processing times are strangling new energy development before it ever gets off the ground — whether that's pipelines, refineries, LNG terminals, or renewable projects. The result is less supply, less competition, and higher costs for consumers.
Case in point: Texas has far less ambitious clean energy targets than New York — yet has added more wind and solar in two years than New York has in two decades. Texas electricity costs roughly 50% less than New York's and clocks in well below the national average.
Why? In New York, most renewable energy projects that signed agreements with the state between 2018 and 2022 have been canceled. A single wind farm has been stuck in environmental review for nearly ten years. Projects are dying on the vine. In Texas, projects routinely break ground in months. The difference isn't resources or ambition. It's permitting.
A Pragmatic Path to Building Faster, Cleaner
Permitting reform isn't about choosing between the environment and affordability. It’s about building the reliable infrastructure we want, quickly and with strong safeguards.
Policymakers should:
Streamline environmental reviews so we can protect the environment while still allowing for innovative projects to get off the ground;
Set clear timelines for permitting decisions so proposals that would increase access and decrease costs for consumers do not languish for years at a time.
Eliminate duplicative approval processes that add years — and billions of dollars — to energy projects.
These reforms are about modernizing oversight, replacing outdated, counterproductive processes with ones that actually work. With clear standards, predictable timelines and streamlined approvals, we can protect the environment, create jobs, and lower costs for American families.
Momentum is Building
Just last month, lawmakers introduced the bipartisan FREEDOM Act, legislation to set enforceable permitting deadlines, protect fully-permitted projects from last-minute reversals, and compensate developers harmed by agency delays.
It's a step forward on the national level. States should follow suit.
Until they do, American families will keep paying more than they should.