America Needs Permitting Reform—With No Gimmicks
12th October 2026
America has forgotten how to build, courtesy of a Byzantine permitting process that delays projects for years and often kills them altogether. A new bill could change that, though, and let the U.S. actually start building things again, including badly needed energy infrastructure that would reduce prices.
The current paralysis was made painfully evident this year when the Iran war disrupted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and oil jumped from about $70 a barrel to about $100 in a matter of weeks. Prices at the pump skyrocketed while costs for natural gas, fertilizer, electricity, and more also rose.
America has weathered the supply shock better than most countries because of our shale production, but the cushion is much thinner than it should be. Every stalled well, pipeline, port, and power line is a shock absorber missing from U.S. infrastructure. Energy security is national security, and a country that cannot build cannot be secure.
The problem, of course, is that every oil well and natural gas well is another stake in the heart of the proglodyte dream of our getting ‘net zero’, all of our energy electricity generated by wind, solar, and unicorn farts.