This panel explored the hard truth at the center of America’s energy challenge: the country knows what it needs to build, but its permitting system no longer allows it to do so. Featuring two members of Congress deeply engaged in permitting reform and moderated by ClearPath CEO Jeremy Harrell, the discussion focused on how regulatory delay, litigation risk, and institutional paralysis are undermining U.S. energy leadership.
Panelists framed permitting reform not as a rollback of environmental protection, but as a necessary modernization of laws written for a very different era. They argued that decades of regulatory layering, agency overreach, and judicial expansion have turned routine infrastructure into multi-year ordeals, discouraging investment and threatening national competitiveness.
From energy production and transmission to data centers, pipelines, and carbon management, the conversation emphasized that speed, certainty, and accountability must be restored if the U.S. hopes to meet rising energy demand, maintain environmental standards, and compete globally.
