Posted on November 18, 2025 by Lisa Epifani
America’s permitting system is not just slow and costly; it is a threat to our economic and energy security. Long delays, unpredictable reviews and escalating costs create investment uncertainty and lost opportunities. Projects across sectors take an average of four to five years to move through the permitting system, and delays cost $100-140 billion a year in the form of jobs, revenue and capital returns. We cannot meet rising energy demand and compete globally with a system that stands in the way of progress.
If the U.S. is to lead in the AI-driven future, catalyze American manufacturing and keep energy costs low, we need to build more of everything and strengthen the energy system to deliver affordable, reliable and secure power.
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
The 119th Congress has an opportunity to deliver bipartisan permitting reform that will let America build. Here are four solutions:
Building in America should always require careful consideration of a project’s impacts on the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law in 1970 to ensure this is done and needs to be updated to meet today’s energy realities. NEPA is a procedural statute to inform decision-making, not dictate outcomes. The May 2025 Seven County Supreme Court case reaffirmed this and importantly clarified both the scope and limits of agency discretion in the NEPA process. In the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, Congress made a down payment to refocus NEPA reviews. It is time to build on those bipartisan NEPA reforms.
Modernizing NEPA should:
NEPA litigation rarely changes outcomes, but it does often delay or kill projects. A July 2025 Breakthrough Institute study found federal agencies win 74% of NEPA cases. By repeatedly filing lawsuits, project opponents aim to delay the process until developers run out of funding and abandon their projects. This chills investor confidence and can be a hurdle to building new energy assets like geothermal, hydropower, transmission lines and critical mineral enterprises. These lawsuits also drain federal agency resources, as agencies try to preempt lawsuits by making their documentation “litigation proof.” To increase predictability and halt harmful delay tactics, we need to reform NEPA judicial review and litigation practices.
Reforming NEPA judicial review and litigation practices will:
In addition to addressing NEPA, Congress could further improve the permitting process by updating environmental regulations, like the Clean Water Act, and expanding categorical exclusions where appropriate.
A modern permitting system should have public, real-time data on the status of environmental reviews and permits to increase certainty and transparency for all stakeholders. Today, missing, fragmented and outdated data makes navigating the permitting process harder for developers, agencies and the public. By increasing transparency, all stakeholders have better visibility into the process and drive efficiency.
Increasing transparency includes:
Fixing permitting alone is not enough. We must let American energy move. With demand for power increasing, we need to strengthen our grid and do it fast. To fix the grid, America should:
There are bills in Congress that capture many of the ideas described above and that can help us meet the challenges we face. These bills include:
It’s time to let America build and let American energy move. With bipartisan reforms, Congress can design a permitting system that meets the scale of the challenge, and advances U.S. leadership in energy, manufacturing and innovation.
