To Advance Energy Affordability, America Must Build Again 

By AGA VP, Planning Dan Lapato 

Dan Lapato is Vice President of Planning at the American Gas Association. He has worked in the energy field for 17 years and was involved in permitting the first Marcellus shale well during his time in the Pennsylvania state government.  

To advance energy affordability, America must be able to build again. Permitting reform is the only place to start. 

When the country can site projects, review them thoroughly and move to construction on a predictable timeline, customers benefit. More supply options come online. More infrastructure upgrades are completed at lower costs. The energy system becomes more responsive, flexible and resilient. Over time, those changes put downward pressure on costs by expanding the menu of practical, lowest-cost options for utilities working to ensure safe, affordable and reliable access to energy for their customers. 

Permitting reform might not be a silver bullet, but it is an indispensable first step. There are multiple problems to solve across the energy system, but none can be fixed at scale if essential projects cannot get infrastructure in the ground on a viable timeline. One of the most popular refrains in the energy world today is that the industry needs three things to adjust to a new period of soaring demand: permitting reform, permitting reform and permitting reform.  That sounds like a joke – it isn’t one.  

Demand is rising in many regions, and the energy system needs more molecules in pipelines and electrons on the grid to continue to meet that demand reliably. Removing barriers for projects that provide natural gas directly to end users or for new power generation is the fastest way to start closing that gap. The point is not to pick winners and losers, but to let builders use the lowest-cost options available, whatever they may be, and to do it quickly enough that customers benefit from savings that come from greater efficiency. 

The natural gas system offers a useful example of how energy system growth should work. The natural gas system expands organically. A pipe does not go in the ground unless there is demand at the other end. It grows by meeting known needs instead of speculating about future demand. That discipline matters for affordability. It helps keep investment aligned with real-world demand, and it strengthens the reliability backstop that keeps the heat on and stoves working when customers need it most. 

When permitting is reliable and efficient, everything downstream benefits.  A pipeline that is easier to site is quicker, easier and less expensive to build. A pipeline that can be upgraded without an interminable review process can begin delivering much-needed energy sooner.  

Permitting reform is necessary to build a stronger energy system and a more prosperous country. It is the cornerstone of an affordability agenda that brings down costs for American families. It is a competitiveness agenda for American manufacturing and technology and a jobs agenda for communities that build, operate and maintain critical infrastructure, and for those whose work relies on the energy that infrastructure provides. Safe, affordable and reliable energy is the difference between opportunity and decline. 

A workable permitting system means clear timelines, fewer duplicative reviews, and decisions that arrive in time to matter. It means the country can say yes to projects that meet requirements and no to those that do not, without turning every proposal into a multiyear legal ordeal. 

If the goal is affordability, the path is clear. Policymakers should prioritize making it possible to build new infrastructure at lower costs and connecting that infrastructure to the customers who need it.