Sep 4, 2025 Permitting Reform Coalition Letter with the Foundation for American Innovation
Dear Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Jeffries, Majority Leader Thune, and Minority Leader Schumer,
America’s economic competitiveness depends on our ability to build critical infrastructure quickly. With electricity demand surging from AI, manufacturing, and industrial growth, we need unprecedented levels of new energy production, transmission, and pipeline infrastructure—and we need it now.
Unfortunately, today’s permitting system was designed for a different era. While laws like the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) were written with good intentions, they have evolved into procedural gauntlets. In the 1970s, the NEPA process for highway projects took a mean of 2.2 years to complete. The average time to complete an Environmental Impact Statement and obtain a Record of Decision now takes an average of almost 4 years. The full process is often further slowed because energy projects of all types run into a “litigation doom loop”, years of lawsuits and delay that create uncertainty and chill investment. These delays don’t improve environmental outcomes, but they do prevent America from building the infrastructure we need. …
