Permitting Reform Required for America’s Clean Energy Transition, Argues New Report from PPI

September 21, 2022

A timely new report, published today by the Progressive Policy Institute’s Paul Bledsoe and Elan Sykes, argues the Biden Administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress’s historic clean energy and climate projects, passed in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPs and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, face major roadblocks that could threaten delivering on the promises of green innovation in the United States. The report authors find that America’s clean energy transition is dependent on permitting reform.

“If these reforms are not adopted, chances are we will face trillions of dollars in annual climate change impact costs in the U.S. and globally, and climate change impacts increasingly undermining domestic and global economic growth and security. The U.S. has made the initial policy investments to set the stage for clean energy and climate change success — now we must help ourselves, and the world, finish the job. No policy actions are more important,” write authors Paul Bledsoe, Strategic Adviser for the Progressive Policy Institute and Elan Sykes, Energy Policy Analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute in the report.

The report comes as Sen. Joe Manchin’s push for permitting reform has met pressure from far-left environmental groups, progressive activists, and members of the House Progressive Caucus. These concerns, which are overwrought, ignore the consensus among environmental analysts that slow regulatory review is creating more environmental and economic costs as we act to fight climate change.

Key policy recommendations from the report include:

Passing the Permitting Proposal led by Sen. Manchin and Sen. Majority Leader Schumer
Authorizing the study of successful permitting reforms – including the FCC’s ‘shot clock’ for cell tower siting
Passing the SITE Act, which would empower the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the siting authority for transmission projects that are currently forced to go through lengthy and fragmented approval processes and improve eminent domain procedures.
Maximizing Green Categorical Exclusions and Programmatic Reviews
Making reforms at the State and Local levels; and
Preventing new regulations from hindering new technologies.

Read and download the full report:

Paul Bledsoe is a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute and a professorial lecturer at American University’s Center for Environmental Policy. He served on the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton, at the U.S. Department of the Interior, as a staff member at the Senate Finance Committee and for several members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Read his full biography here.

Elan Sykes is an Energy Policy Analyst at PPI. Elan works on energy deployment, innovation, and decarbonization. Prior to joining PPI, Elan served as a researcher at the Climate Leadership Council where he focused on carbon pricing, global climate policy, and the intersection of climate and trade policies.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Brussels and Berlin. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

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Media Contact: Aaron White – awhite@ppionline.org