CONTRIBUTED BY STATE SEN. RANDY PRICE
OPINION —
The United States must ramp up infrastructure and domestic energy development in order to create jobs, spur economic growth, strengthen national security and help bring down the cost of energy. The best way to ensure we can actually do all of those things is by streamlining and simplifying our current, convoluted federal permitting process.
Unfortunately, the United States and our allies have become far too reliant on adversarial nations like China to meet a range of needs, from energy to manufactured goods. This reliance poses a growing threat to our domestic manufacturing base, our ability to forge our own clean energy future, as well as to national security. At the same time, our energy is becoming increasingly expensive and, at times, unreliable.
Comprehensive reform of the federal permitting process can help address and mitigate these threats while making energy more reliable and affordable here in Alabama and across the United States. Reforming our overly-complex federal permitting process will help move critical energy and infrastructure projects forward in a more efficient and timelier manner. This will, in turn, help the United States retain its global competitive advantage.
For far too long, the permitting process has been an onerous, inefficient nightmare. Sometimes, a single step in the process can take up to a decade or longer to complete. Not only does that delay the physical construction of new infrastructure and energy projects, it also increases costs, decreases overall investment and delays the economic, environmental and clean energy benefits that these projects provide.
Congress must work to unleash America’s economic and energy potential by passing commonsense permitting reform as soon as they can. Given her smart leadership in Washington, Sen. Katie Boyd Britt should help ensure federal permitting reform takes priority this legislative session.
Randy Price serves in the Alabama State Senate, representing Lee County.