Imagine waiting nearly a decade just to get approval to fix a road, build a power line, or expand a factory that your community depends on. For too many families and businesses, that’s the reality of America’s outdated permitting system.
Before highways, pipelines, or power plants can be built, they must go through an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Signed into law more than 50 years ago, NEPA was designed to make sure federal projects considered their impact on the environment. But over time, what began as a reasonable safeguard has turned into a maze of paperwork, delays, and lawsuits.
The Problem: Reviews That Take Longer Than Building the Project
When NEPA was passed in 1970, the U.S. population was about 200 million. Today, it’s more than 330 million and growing. At the same time, new pressures are piling on. Data centers that power artificial intelligence are projected to double or even triple their electricity use by 2028. Meanwhile, overall U.S. demand for electricity is expected to rise 35–50% by 2040. The projects stuck in permitting aren’t just about today’s needs. They’re the very projects that will power tomorrow’s future—supporting AI, advanced manufacturing, and the cleaner energy technologies our communities will rely on for decades.
But here’s the catch: while demand is soaring, our approval system is crawling.
- The average environmental review is 661 pages long and takes 4.5 years to complete.
- Lawsuits can add another four years or more, and often they’re not even about the project’s environmental impact. Instead, they’re tied up in procedural disputes over paperwork and process, leaving shovel-ready projects in limbo.
- Developers often spend $25–50 million just to survive the process, and many projects die before a single shovel hits the ground.
That means it can take longer to review a project than to actually build it.
What This Means for You
These delays don’t just frustrate developers; they cost you money. Every year of delay adds millions in expenses, which get passed directly to consumers. Families feel it in higher power bills. Small businesses feel it when the cost of heating, cooling, or running equipment climbs. And entire communities feel it when outdated power lines can’t keep up, leading to blackouts and higher grocery prices.
When energy projects get stuck, supply can’t keep pace with demand. That creates real risks for households:
- Higher utility bills when supply is tight.
- Rolling blackouts when the grid is strained during heat waves or winter storms.
- Missed job opportunities when manufacturers choose other countries that can build faster.
Permitting Delays Hurt Every Energy Source
This isn’t about one type of energy versus another. NEPA delays hit everything—whether it’s natural gas pipelines, nuclear plants, or transmission lines needed to deliver wind and solar power. Every time a project gets stalled, consumers lose.
That’s why modernizing NEPA is about balance: keeping strong environmental safeguards in place while setting clear timelines and cutting through unnecessary red tape.
Then CEA Bottom Line
Families, workers, and small businesses can’t afford to be stuck in “permitting purgatory.” Every delay drives up costs, weakens grid reliability, and slows down the cleaner energy future we all want.
Fixing NEPA is not about politics. It’s about pocketbook costs, energy security, and keeping the lights on. It’s about ensuring that America can build the infrastructure needed to power our homes today and fuel the technologies, jobs, and cleaner energy future of tomorrow.
The time to act is now. By modernizing NEPA, we can balance environmental progress with economic opportunity and deliver the practical energy solutions that families and businesses need today and for decades to come.