They’ve Been in Our Fields: How China Is Stealing America’s Agricultural Advantage

American agricultural data is a national security asset. The seed genetics, soil data, precision agriculture tools and germplasm libraries behind U.S. crop production reflect decades of research investment that keep American farmers productive, profitable and competitive in global markets.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stolen U.S. data, trade secrets and intellectual property across sectors. Agriculture is no exception. From proprietary seed genetics to agricultural algorithms and field-level data, China has targeted the information that gives American farmers an edge. If Congress doesn’t act, American agriculture could follow the same path as other American industries, such as pharmaceuticals, where the U.S. has become dependent on China for a product American industry used to lead in producing.

From American Farms to Chinese State Labs

In 2016, a director at Chinese seed company DBN Group, was sentenced to prison for physically digging up proprietary corn seed from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto fields in Iowa and Illinois to ship back to China, a federal crime. Another example, in 2017, a scientist at Monsanto’s Climate Corporation stole the source code for a predictive algorithm using satellite and soil data that guides farmers’ planting decisions and took it to China’s Institute of Soil Science. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

Those are just the criminal cases. Chinese-manufactured agricultural drones now dominate the U.S. spray-drone market and can transmit high-resolution crop and field data back through Chinese servers. Information, like predicted agricultural yields, can give China an advantage in global commodities trading and put U.S. food security at risk. The administration and members of Congress have raised the alarm, but the collection of agricultural data continues.

China Did This to American Pharmaceuticals. Agriculture Is Next

The pharmaceutical sector offers a warning. This year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documented how China established a dominant position over the U.S. drug supply: 1) copy the technology, 2) subsidize production beyond domestic need, then 3) undercut American manufacturers on price until they can’t compete. The U.S. is now dependent on China for essential medicines, controlling the key starting materials for 94 percent of amoxicillin and 70 percent of acetaminophen.

The CCP is running the same strategy on seeds. China’s 2021 Seed Industry Revitalization Plan, explicitly called seeds “the microchips of agriculture.” The CCP has since approved 64 genetically modified corn varieties and organized state-backed companies to build seed capacity that already exceeds domestic demand. That is the same overcapacity strategy that preceded China’s dominance in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply.

When the CCP Controls the Agricultural Data, Farmers Pay the Price

For farmers operating on thin margins, better agricultural data can translate into greater productivity and lower costs. Plant genetic data helps researchers develop higher-yielding and more resilient crop varieties. Soil and microbial genetics data can produce more efficient on-farm inputs. Additionally, precision agriculture built on American field data helps farmers apply the right inputs, in the right amounts, at the right time, cutting waste and improving returns per acre. Together, these technologies represent a significant part of America’s agricultural advantage.

But the same data that makes American agriculture more productive can also help competitors close the gap. As China expands its ability to collect and analyze agricultural data, it can accelerate its own innovation while benefiting from knowledge generated through decades of American investment.

The risk extends beyond the research pipeline. The CCP is actively monitoring U.S. crop production through its own satellite systems and collecting field-level data through commercial drones operating on American farms. This data could be used to time commodity purchases and gain leverage in trade and larger international negotiations.

America’s agricultural research advantage took decades to build. Bringing a single new crop variety to market can take 8 to 10 years. Behind every improved seed is years of research, field testing, data collection and investment.

That is why protecting agricultural intellectual property and data is critical. China is not building that pipeline from scratch, it is trying to take what American researchers have already built and use it to undercut American producers in global markets. Losing this research race does not just cost American agriculture its competitive edge. It costs American farmers their markets. We should not allow China to turn stolen American innovation into a competitive advantage against American farmers in global markets.

Protecting American Farm Data Continues with Congress

The Trump Administration is acting. Through the Genesis Mission and the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA), USDA has launched an Agricultural National Science and Technology Challenge, bringing together experts to build new AI infrastructure that can pull together disparate data sets, including images, field data and lab results, so researchers can improve identification of plant and seed traits to develop better crops for American farmers.

USDA is also upgrading its data foundation. In September, Secretary Rollins unveiled the USDA Data Modernization Plan to modernize USDA’s agricultural data collection and expand satellite-based yield monitoring. This month, USDA announced an $180 million investment to launch the Seed Sovereignty Initiative, which will sequence collections of major crops within USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), unlocking a key resource to strengthen U.S. agricultural security.

Congress can build on the Administration’s work by funding agricultural research through AgARDA and USDA’s data modernization with sustained, multi-year appropriations. The U.S. needs to keep generating better science, better technology and better data faster than its competitors. This funding would allow the U.S. to better compete with the build-out of China’s agricultural data infrastructure.

American agriculture leads the world in productivity and has dramatically decoupled output from emissions, producing over 50% more, while growing emissions by only 7% since 1990, an advantage built directly on the innovation and data China is working to take. Ceding that leadership costs American farmers market share and hands China control over the world’s seed technology and food supply.

America spent generations building the world’s most innovative agricultural system. Congress should protect the data and intellectual property behind it and make sure American farmers have the research and technology they need to stay ahead.

2026 GAP Report: Restarting Growth

A Bipartisan Permitting Path That Will Let America Build

Congress is one step closer to solving one of the most consequential questions in energy policy: how long it takes to build infrastructure projects in America. At this time of surging energy demand, Congress has a clear path to deliver on years of bipartisan work and lower energy costs for Americans.

This week, Senate negotiators released the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, a comprehensive permitting package designed to make the federal review process faster, more predictable and more transparent. If enacted, it will transform our current federal permitting system into one that is prepared to meet the needs of America’s economy.

McKinsey estimates that more than $1 trillion in infrastructure investment is tied up in the federal permitting process. Our permitting system was designed to protect the environment, not prevent America from building. Yet, a maze of delays and uncertainty holds back energy production, critical mineral supply chains, manufacturing and the grid infrastructure that connects them.

This permitting reform bill could change that. By setting clear rules that apply across technologies, permitting decisions will move away from picking winners and losers. That kind of durability gives investors the confidence to commit capital to building in America.

The Senate proposal doesn’t start from scratch. It builds on bipartisan work from last Congress in the Energy Permitting Reform Act, retains key elements from the House-passed SPEED Act, and includes long-needed reforms for mineral processing, transmission lines and geothermal energy. In some cases, common-sense solutions to long-standing bottlenecks were percolating more than a decade ago when I was in government.

Nowhere is the urgency clearer than the electric grid. The bill will codify ratepayer protections from data infrastructure costs while ensuring America can build the transmission it needs to support its growing economy. It introduces new planning processes to let American energy move across regions and enhances states’ oversight of transmission to protect consumers. New directives will accelerate deployment of innovative grid technologies that can optimize the performance of the grid: unlocking capacity, enhancing efficiency and bolstering reliability.

Past Permitting Timelines

Sources: 1. Renewable Energy World, 2. Trans West Express, 3. Scotusblog, 4. Mountain Valley Pipeline

A grid that cannot bring new generation and transmission online fast enough to meet that demand means higher bills, not lower ones. Transmission projects alone have spent an average of 4.3 years in federal environmental review, including some for more than a decade. The bill remedies this by setting clear, enforceable timelines to complete reviews and creates a more navigable path from application to approval for all types of energy.

Consistent with the principles outlined by the Supreme Court in the Seven County case, the bill will reform a judicial review system that previously allowed opponents to tack years onto approved projects through litigation. While the bill preserves the ability to challenge permits for those who participated in the process, it clarifies the requirement to file suits and ensures any issues are directly addressed, rather than starting over from scratch. These reforms would deliver the kind of certainty developers need once permits have been issued rather than gambling on whether a permitted project might still be revoked by litigation or political pressure years down the road.

Targeted reforms to the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act will streamline regulatory reviews while maintaining proper environmental protections. This is accomplished by making sure water quality certifications, endangered species and historic preservation consultations have a clearly defined scope of review and a deadline for completion. The result is a permitting system that maintains robust environmental protections while ensuring reviews are timely, defined and transparent.

Most importantly, this framework is built to last. By clearing barriers that have stalled major infrastructure projects for decades, Congress now has the opportunity to let America do what it does best: innovate fast, build here and sell globally. These provisions offer a blueprint to bring down costs, modernize the grid and put American energy to work. That’s how America builds, and how American energy moves.

Seeing What Building Requires: CCLP Fellows Visit Charlotte’s Mines and Manufacturing Floors

To meet growing energy demand, America needs to build more than it has in a generation, and the policy that gets it there will be shaped by people who understand how building actually happens. That is the idea behind ClearPath’s Conservative Leadership Program (CCLP), which brought nine fellows to Charlotte, North Carolina for its second annual retreat. Over three days, fellows toured a lithium mine and a turbine factory and worked on the leadership skills they will need in Washington. At both stops, the lesson was the same: what happens in Washington decides how fast America builds.

Kings Mountain shows what coordinated permitting can do

Every energy, critical minerals and infrastructure project starts with permitting. CCLP’s fellows started their visit at Albermarle’s Kings Mountain lithium mine, a site that supplied American lithium for decades before it went quiet in the late 1980s. Albemarle is bringing it back to meet the growing need for a domestic critical minerals supply chain. As a FAST-41 covered project, Kings Mountain’s federal environmental reviews were coordinated by the Permitting Council, and listed on the Permitting Dashboard for transparency. The visit began with Albemarle walking them through how the mine navigated the process.

Albemarle’s lithium mine in Kings Mountain is projected to produce roughly 420,000 metric tons of spodumene concentrate each year, the raw input for a domestic battery supply chain that currently depends heavily on overseas production. When federal reviews are coordinated and tracked in public, projects like Kings Mountain can move. The task for Congress is making that the norm, not the exception.

For the Congressional fellows, the visit connected directly to their day jobs. “I appreciated ClearPath taking the time to make this retreat happen and focus on allowing the CCLP fellows to develop more practical understandings of the energy policy we’re working on in Congress,” said said Max Morgan, one of CCLP’s Congressional fellows. CCLP doesn’t just prepare fellows for the work they will do in the future, but for the work they are doing in Washington right now.

The grid is built in factories before it’s built in the field

At Siemens Energy’s Charlotte hub, Project Engineer Mike Ellis walked the group across the floor where gas turbines, steam turbines, large generators and combustion components are built – machines that will spend decades putting power on grids here and abroad. This part of the supply chain rarely gets attention in Washington, but it is where rising electricity demand meets real manufacturing capacity. Meeting that demand means building here and selling globally, and factories like this one are how America does both.

Good policy needs good leaders

CCLP is designed with the idea that professional development is a key driver in producing the next generation of clean energy champions. The professional skills fellows build in the program are the same skills that will serve them throughout their careers.

“A big part of CCLP is building a network, not just creating individual fellowship experiences,” said Dana Faught, Director of CCLP. “The retreat gives us dedicated time to invest in them professionally, expose them to parts of the energy space they may not see in their current roles, and help them build relationships with each other.”

Part of that investment came through the SHINE Leadership Accelerator with Nicole Greer, who told the cohort her goal was personal transformation, not a presentation. She asked fellows to start with one question: “What is it like to experience me?” Each fellow charted the highs and lows that shaped them and shared those stories with the group.

Greer also described the concept of “willingness” throughout the sessions during the retreat, and directly tied it to the fellows’ work in energy and in Congress.

“Moving legislation and policy forward can require Plan A, Plan B and sometimes Plan Z,” Greer said. “You have to develop resilience, persistence and, there’s that word again, willingness.”

Plenty of organizations offer young professionals a seat at the table, but fewer take them to the steel-in-the-ground where that policy work becomes real. ClearPath does both.

The opportunity ahead

In Charlotte, fellows saw what it takes for America to build again: a lithium mine returning after decades offline, and a factory floor turning out the turbines and generators that keep the lights on. As they take on bigger roles in Washington and across the energy sector, they’ll bring that experience with them. That’s the point of CCLP – making sure the people who help decide how fast America builds have already seen what building requires.

The Biggest Week Yet for the Future of Next-Gen Geothermal

Cape Station going online and DOE announcing $99 million in new awards validate the next-gen project pipeline.

This week, the Department of Energy Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) announced more than $99 million in new awards, supporting 21 pilot and demonstration projects to test and characterize enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The projects span geothermal resources in eight states, stretching from Washington’s Wind River Valley to New Mexico’s Rio Grande Rift to Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

Additionally, Fervo Energy announced first power at its flagship Cape Station project, meaning the project is now delivering power to the grid. This major breakthrough for next-generation geothermal marks what Fervo has called “the first time a utility-scale enhanced geothermal development has reached this milestone anywhere in the world.”

The fact both of these major announcements come within 72 hours of each other is a testament to the momentum behind the geothermal industry. These announcements reflect years of hard work to establish the right financing and permitting policies, prove new technologies and deliver real projects that produce clean firm power at scale.

For DOE’s part, Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit made the award announcements during a fireside chat moderated by ClearPath’s Head of Policy, Lisa Epifani at the Geothermal Rising Conference in Houston, TX. Earlier this year, Haustveit told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this would be the largest competitive geothermal funding opportunity in the Department’s history, and this announcement delivers.

DOE Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit and BLM Principal Deputy Director Bill Groffy joined a fireside chat with ClearPath’s Head of Policy, Lisa Epifani, at the Geothermal Rising Conference in Houston, TX.

It’s the latest proof point in a model that has already delivered results: federal dollars supporting the highest-risk part of the technology innovation curve, later paving the way for private capital to take over after projects have been proven at commercial scale.

That model matters more with increasing electricity demand. AI, manufacturing and reshoring are straining a grid that needs more firm, dispatchable power as soon as possible. Geothermal is uniquely positioned to answer that call and next-generation EGS technology means it’s no longer confined to a handful of geologic hotspots in the west. DOE estimates next-generation geothermal could supply at least 90 gigawatts of American electricity by 2050 — a hundredfold increase from today, putting it on par with the Nation’s nuclear power fleet.

The 21 new awards break down into two categories. Five for EGS field tests and another 16 for earlier stage resource characterization. Five projects will conduct field-scale EGS tests at commercially relevant depths and temperatures, powered by industry leaders Fervo Energy, Zanskar and Quaise Energy. An additional 16 projects will identify and confirm promising geothermal resources, generating subsurface data that DOE will make public through the Geothermal Data Repository to share the learning value of each well across the industry.

2026 Geothermal Pilot and Demonstrations Award Selections

Zanskar, a Salt Lake City-based developer that deploys artificial intelligence to find overlooked geothermal resources, was one of just two companies to land awards in both categories. At its Lightning Dock project in New Mexico, Zanskar will test whether enhanced-geothermal techniques can wring more power from an already-producing field. In Nevada, a second award will fund a directionally-drilled confirmation well in an area that has never been tested, based on data from Zanskar’s AI modeling.

Fervo Energy also picked up two of the 21 awards, including an EGS field test in Elmore County, Idaho. Fervo’s success in this funding round is just the latest evidence the model works: years of federal support through DOE’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site in Utah helped the company boost drilling rates by as much as 143 percent, and Fervo has gone on to sign long-term power contracts with major utilities and tech companies to deliver the first commercial-scale EGS project.

Quaise Energy will use its award to test EGS on the flank of Oregon’s Newberry Volcano at bottomhole temperatures between 265°C and 365°C, temperatures greater than where most conventional drilling tools and materials have ever been validated. This combination of unproven geology and new technology is precisely the type of project a milestone-based federal demonstration program is designed to de-risk and allow private capital to follow.

The other 16 awards, led by companies like XGS Energy, Invenergy and GreenFire Energy, will uncover additional sites through earlier-stage activities. This category of projects seek to bolster the database of subsurface characterization for geothermal resources. Subsurface uncertainty is the single biggest reason private capital hesitates to invest in a project before it has proven, especially because drilling accounts for up to 80 percent of total geothermal project costs. Public data from these wells lowers that risk for the next company down the road, not just the one holding the DOE award.

Geothermal has quietly solved the technology risk even though it has seen a smaller federal demonstration budget than the multi-billion dollar programs for technologies like nuclear, hydrogen and carbon capture. While that gap has not stopped geothermal’s momentum, it has certainly made it harder for this reliable, clean, baseload energy source to reach gigawatt scale. Shrinking that funding gap represents an opportunity for Congress to supercharge the geothermal pathway toward commercialization.

The Geo POWER Act, led by Reps. Nick Begich (R-AK) and Susie Lee (D-NV) with a Senate companion from Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO), would establish the kind of milestone-based federal demonstration program these 21 awards are already road-testing at smaller scale. The bill would unlock innovative, performance-based financing to reduce project risk, attract private capital, and expand next-generation geothermal into new regions of the country, beyond the handful of states where it operates today.

The combination of the Trump administration’s support for geothermal and geothermal’s proven array of commercial projects is the perfect match to support American drilling jobs, energy security and grid reliability. These factors also make it a natural fit for a robust energy innovation agenda in the next Congress. The innovators selected by DOE to advance these next-generation projects are well-suited to deliver on the energy dominance agenda.

Building the Next 250 Years of American Energy

America’s first 250 years were built on energy innovation. From the steam engine to shale gas, American ingenuity has consistently unlocked the next generation of affordable, reliable power. As our nation marks this milestone, the next 250 years demand the same ambition.

AI and data centers, efforts to reshore manufacturing, oilfield electrification and energy security needs are all pushing electricity and industrial demand higher. U.S. electricity demand could rise 35–50 percent by 2040, roughly three Texas-sized grids’ worth of new load. That growth creates an opportunity to deploy reliable, affordable, lower-emissions American technologies at scale, and turn rising demand into a lasting American advantage by innovating faster, building more and competing to win globally.

Now in its fifth year, the Carbon Innovation Forum, hosted by ClearPath and the American Petroleum Institute (API), returned to New York Climate Week, to take on that challenge. The Forum brought government leaders, energy executives, emerging technology companies and investors together around one central theme: how American ingenuity, capital and policy can bring the next generation of energy technologies to market and lower energy costs for Americans.

Senator John Curtis (R-UT) joins fireside chat moderated by ClearPath CEO Jeremy Harrell

Winning the Global Energy Race

At the start of this century, U.S. power plants generated roughly three times as much electricity as China. Today, China generates more than twice as much as the United States. The gap extends to the materials that underpin energy and manufacturing: America depends entirely on imports for 13 critical minerals, while China leads production of 20 of the 60 minerals the U.S. Geological Survey deems critical and refines an estimated 70% of the world’s strategic minerals.

The United States has the tools to change that trajectory: abundant resources, deep capital markets, world-leading technical expertise and a culture of innovation. Realizing that potential requires pairing those strengths with the right policies, infrastructure and investment.

Alex Fitzsimmons, Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, joins a fireside chat moderated by ClearPath CEO Jeremy Harrell

The LNG Playbook: Innovate, Build, Sell

There is a model for this transformation. In less than a decade, the United States went from loading its first liquified natural gas (LNG) export cargo to becoming the world’s leading LNG exporter, demonstrating what is possible when American engineering, capital, infrastructure and policy move together. U.S. LNG liquefaction capacity is expected to more than double from 2025 levels by 2029, with additional projects planned and under construction.

Liquefied U.S. Natural Gas Exports

Source: Energy Information Agency

That growth was made possible by the shale revolution, enabled in part by decades of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and public-private partnerships that advanced technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling before industry scaled them.

That model can help unlock the next generation of American energy technologies, from advanced nuclear and next-generation geothermal to critical minerals and carbon capture. The priorities are straightforward: meet rising demand with American energy, modernize infrastructure and supply chains, mobilize capital and turn American innovation into global leadership.

Shale Revolution 2.0: Producing More at Home

Energy security begins with making better use of the resources, expertise and infrastructure the United States already has. The oil and gas industry has spent decades building world-leading capabilities in geology, drilling, subsurface engineering and carbon management. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) already shows how that expertise can increase energy production, using captured carbon dioxide (CO2) and pipelines to recover additional oil from mature fields. The same infrastructure and subsurface capabilities can support emerging approaches such as enhanced mineral recovery (EMR), helping recover critical minerals from domestic deposits and unlocking new markets. Scaling both EOR and EMR will require more captured CO2 and the pipelines to move it.

The first shale revolution cemented America as an energy superpower. The next can apply that same subsurface expertise across oil and gas, critical minerals and emerging resources to increase domestic production, strengthen supply chains and reduce dependence on foreign competitors.

Andy Rapp, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, and Will Jordan, Chief Legal and Policy Officer, EQT Corporation, join a fireside chat moderated by API Vice President of Natural Gas Rob Jennings.

Wires and Pipes: Building the Infrastructure America Needs

No single step would do more to let America build than modernized permitting. Electricity and industrial demand are growing faster than the transmission and pipeline systems built to serve them can expand, while the rapid buildout of AI and data centers is placing even greater pressure on existing networks.

Weighted Average Permitting Time for Projects Varies by Sector

Source: BLM NEPA National Register; Breakthrough Institute; Columbia University; USFS NEPA Database; Council on Environmental Quality; EIS Length Database; Federal Permitting Dashboard; Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council: Baseline Performance Schedules; Federal Register: Section 404 Permits; Government Accountability Office; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; NOAA: EFH Consultation; PNAS; Stanford University; University of Utah; McKinsey & Company

Closing that gap will require developers, regulators, utilities, pipeline operators and hyperscalers to expand and modernize transmission lines and pipelines at the pace demand requires. Permitting is central to that effort. Too often, lengthy and unpredictable processes stand between a viable project and construction, making durable permitting reform essential to building the infrastructure America needs.

Mobilizing American Capital

Innovation only matters if promising technologies can reach commercial scale, which requires capital at every stage. Recent initial public offerings by companies such as advanced nuclear firm X-energy and geothermal developer Fervo Energy suggest that markets increasingly see these technologies as serious, scalable responses to rising energy demand.

Jeff McClure, Senior Advisor in the Office of Energy Dominance Financing, U.S. Department of Energy, and Tim Latimer, CEO, Fervo Energy, join a panel moderated by Hillary O’Brien, Managing Director of Clean Power, Natural Resources and Research at ClearPath.

The next challenge is strengthening the pathway from early-stage investment to commercial deployment and public markets. Private capital will remain essential, while federal financing and well-designed public-private partnerships can help reduce risk, support first-of-a-kind projects and attract additional investment. DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing is already playing that role. This year, EDF announced a $17.5 billion conditional loan commitment to accelerate the deployment of 10 large-scale nuclear reactors while leveraging significant private equity from project sponsors.

Powering America’s Next 250 Years

Rising energy demand presents a generational opportunity for the United States to innovate fast, build here in America, and sell technologies globally. Doing so will require producing more resources at home, building the infrastructure to move energy where it is needed, giving investors the certainty they need to mobilize capital and scaling American technologies at home and abroad.

Thanks to our speakers: Senator John Curtis (R-UT); Alex Fitzsimmons, Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; Andy Rapp, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; Jeff McClure, Senior Advisor, Office of Energy Dominance Financing, U.S. Department of Energy; Former Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA); Savita Bowman, Program Director – Advanced Manufacturing and Carbon Innovation, ClearPath; Neil Chatterjee, Chief Government Affairs, Palmetto; Kristian Schmidt Clausen, Investment Director, AIP Management; John Dabbar, Executive Director, National Petroleum Council; Gavin Dillingham, Executive Advisor, Federal Affairs, SLB; Vishal Gupta, President & Manager, Oxy EOR Ventures; Cameron Halliday, Co-Founder and CEO, Mantel; Jeremy Harrell, CEO, ClearPath and ClearPath Action; Ariel Horowitz, Data Center Energy Lead, Anthropic; Rob Jennings, Vice President of Natural Gas Markets, API; Will Jordan, Chief Legal and Policy Officer, EQT Corporation; Ashley Kang, Senior Director, External Affairs & Communications, Grid United; Tim Latimer, CEO, Fervo Energy; Courtney Loper, Head of Government Relations and Public Affairs, EQT Corporation; Sasha Mackler, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Strategy, ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions; Nicholas McMurray, Managing Director – International and Nuclear Policy, ClearPath; Hillary O’Brien, Managing Director – Clean Power, Natural Resources and Research, ClearPath; Aaron Padilla, Vice President of Corporate Policy, API; Todd Schaef, Chief Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Josh Siegel, Energy Reporter, POLITICO; Amos Snead, Founder and CEO, The DUX Group; Jack Thirolf, Head of Public Policy and External Affairs, NET Power; Alexei Viarruel, Executive Director, Power & Renewables Investment Banking, J.P. Morgan; and Rebecca Winkel, Director, Climate & Sustainability Policy, API.

Wall Street Is Ready To Invest In America’s Energy Future. If Washington Permits It. (The Daily Caller)

This op-ed was originally published by The Daily Caller on September 18, 2026. Click here to read the entire piece.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune just put permitting reform on the Senate agenda before Election Day. This news comes as next week, America’s leading investors, policymakers and energy developers will fill Manhattan for Climate Week NYC to advance the technologies that can meet America’s surging power demand. American innovators are transforming nuclear energy, drilling geothermal wells faster and more efficiently, and bringing once-novel energy technologies closer to commercial reality. While American technology has rapidly improved, our permitting system has not. Fixing that should be at the top of everyone’s agenda.

Wall Street has the money. American innovators have the talent and technology. Customers need the power. What is missing is a permitting system that gives investors the confidence that the government will responsibly approve vital infrastructure projects required to build the next generation of American energy.

The United States knows how to build. It took just five years to build the Hoover Dam, four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and just over one year to build the Empire State Building. Today, obtaining a transmission line permit takes longer than a college degree.

Permitting in America currently favors those who block over those who build. Delays and hostile litigation keep capital on the sidelines, stifling American innovation and hindering the domestic energy supply chain. Investors already accept genuine risk on construction and first-of-a-kind projects. What they shouldn’t have to accept is a permitting process that piles years of needless uncertainty on top of it.

The SunZia transmission line, a 550-mile high-voltage link carrying power across New Mexico and Arizona, is just one example. It took 18 years of development to bring the project online. Construction took less than three years, while planning, review and litigation consumed 15 years.

Innovation was never the hard part; the bureaucratic process is. Advanced nuclear developers are breaking ground, geothermal companies are drilling wells that would have been unprofitable a decade ago, and carbon capture projects are ready for Final Investment Decisions. What stands between development and deployment is a federal permitting process that grinds critical infrastructure development to a halt and blocks the commercialization of new technologies. Delays that last years make projects more expensive and push critical energy investment overseas, increasing rates and risking U.S. economic and national security.

Click here to read the full article

10 NRC Rulemakings to Watch

Updated on September 2, 2026. Originally posted on April 23, 2026 by Nicholas McMurray and Natalie Houghtalen

A sweeping modernization effort is now underway at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency is advancing dozens of rulemakings touching nearly every aspect of the licensing process: hearings, environmental reviews, fusion, fee recovery, radiation protection, microreactors and more. This moment is not just a burst of regulatory activity. It is the convergence of sustained efforts across multiple timelines driven by years of bipartisan policy, recent executive action and more than a decade of internal NRC Commission and staff modernization activities.

That convergence matters for three reasons. First, it helps explain why the rulemaking docket feels so crowded. Second, much of the current rulemaking reflects the need to be more efficient, effective and predictable. Third, most of these rules have broad, longstanding consensus and have been in process across multiple Congresses and Administrations.

Seen that way, the current moment is about more than regulatory housekeeping. It is a test of whether the United States can translate nearly 10 years of bipartisan legislative and policy momentum into a licensing system capable of enabling predictable deployment timelines and project costs. Many of the rules initiated by one piece of legislation were also affected by subsequent legislation or executive direction. Here are the 10 rules to watch most closely:

Initiated by Federal Legislation

These rulemakings largely establish regulations for new commercial technologies such as advanced reactors, fusion machines and microreactors. A predictable, durable pathway for these technologies is necessary to enable broad deployment.

Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act of 2019 (NEIMA)

1. Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: The creation of a modern licensing pathway for advanced reactors, 10 CFR Part 53, that can accommodate different technologies, designs and operating models.
Why it matters: The new Part 53 of the NRC’s regulatory code is the opportunity for the NRC to turn risk-informed regulation into a workable path for advanced reactor deployment.
What’s next: The NRC published the final rule in March 2026.

2. Regulatory Framework for Fusion Machines (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: A proposed rule to establish a dedicated licensing approach for fusion machines rather than regulating fusion like fission.
Why it matters: Fusion and fission are inherently different technologies, and accordingly require different regulatory frameworks.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in February 2026. The final rule is expected by the end of 2027.

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA)

3. Implementation of FRA of 2023 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Amendments (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: A proposed rule, resulting from a legislatively directed review of the NRC’s environmental review process to align NRC’s regulations with current NEPA requirements.
Why it matters: The process improvements under the FRA should reduce the review’s timeline and cost by focusing the NRC’s analysis on what falls within the scope of the agency, authorizing the applicant to prepare their own environmental report and only requiring the appropriate level of environmental review.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in July 2026. The final rule is expected in early 2027.

Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024 (ADVANCE)

4. Licensing Requirements for Microreactors and Other Reactors with Comparable Risk Profiles (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: A proposed rule that would modify many parts of NRC regulations to create a new, more flexible regulatory framework with licensing options for microreactors and other smaller, factory-built, low-risk reactors.
Why it matters: Microreactors and similar reactors, whose manufacturing and operating profiles do not fit within the traditional large-reactor licensing process, should have a regulatory framework that ensures safety and provides flexibility for that business model.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in May 2026. The final rule is expected early 2027

5. Streamlining Contested Adjudications in Licensing Proceedings (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: An effort to restructure the contested hearings process at NRC so legal challenges reach timely resolutions that benefit the public, applicants and other stakeholders.
Why it matters: Contested hearings ensure that major safety and environmental issues are fully considered; process improvements could significantly increase licensing predictability while maintaining the integrity of that process.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in March 2026. The final rule is expected late 2026.

Initiated by Executive Order 14300

These rulemakings, initiated by EO 14300 signed in May 2025, reflect the administration’s interest in the widespread deployment of new nuclear reactors.

6. Modernizing Reactor Licensing, Safety Oversight, and Siting Practices (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: An umbrella modernization effort to revisit how a multitude of NRC rules and guidance documents interact across the full reactor lifecycle.
Why it matters: A holistic rewrite could matter more than any single rule if it successfully reduces friction or differences between licensing, oversight and siting requirements.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in June 2026. The final rule is expected in early 2027

7. NRC Reviews of Reactor Designs Previously Authorized by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) or Department of War (DOW) (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: An effort to allow the NRC to better leverage safety reviews and operational data from existing DOE or DOW reactor authorization records when licensing through an NRC process.
Why it matters: Leveraging prior technical reviews and operational experience could reduce duplicative review activities and enable commercial applicants to move through the licensing process more efficiently.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in April 2026. The final rule is expected late 2026.

8. Reforming and Modernizing the NRC’s Radiation Protection Framework (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: A broad reevaluation of the NRC’s radiation protection framework, including the assumptions and standards that shape design and operation requirements for all radiation-related activities required by the NRC.
Why it matters: Because radiation protection underpins many NRC regulatory requirements, this rule could affect the cost, operations and public perception of all activities regulated by the NRC.
What’s next: The NRC published the proposed rule in June 2026. The final rule is expected early 2027

9. A Focused Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) (NRC Rule Page)

What it is: The ACRS is another layer of safety within, but separate from, the NRC staff that reviews reactor license applications and other regulatory activities. A focused ACRS process would reduce the number of routine reviews and concentrate committee attention on novel or safety-significant issues.
Why it matters: Without focusing the ACRS on the most consequential issues related to new reactor licensing, the committee’s expertise and resources would be spread too thin and the committee’s review process could become a procedural bottleneck to new reactor deployment.
What’s next: The NRC is expected to publish the final rule in October 2026.

Initiated Internally by the NRC

The NRC is not just reacting to outside mandates. It is also trying to reshape the broader regulatory framework on its own terms.

10. Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors

What it is: For any new reactor, a GEIS addresses the recurring environmental issues for all plants and enables the site-specific analysis to focus only on unique issues.
Why it matters: Initiated in 2020, the NRC staff estimate that this would significantly reduce analysis, increase predictability and reduce the costs of environmental reviews by between 20% and 45%, depending on the project.
What’s next: The NRC published the final rule in April 2026.

Amping Up the Grid: The Role of High Ampacity Conductors in Transmission Expansion