Senator Alan Armstrong, who recently transitioned from executive chairman of Williams Companies to the Senate, emphasized on Bloomberg This Weekend the critical need for permitting reform to expand energy infrastructure. He highlighted that the current permitting process in the U.S. is overly complicated, politicized, and often designed to impede rather than facilitate critical infrastructure projects, stating that agencies and powerful NGOs contribute to delays and litigation.
Armstrong argues that this broken process ultimately harms consumers by separating abundant domestic energy supplies from markets, driving up costs. He cited the significant difference in gasoline prices between Oklahoma and California due to California's reduction from 43 refineries to 6 or 7 and its restrictions on pipeline construction. He used the example of the proposed Western Gateway pipeline by Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan, which aims to transport energy from Oklahoma to California, as the type of essential project stalled by current regulations.
The Senator underscored that the goal of permitting should be to connect supplies with demand without making decisions on fuel choices, and criticized the process for becoming a tool to pick "winners and losers" among energy sources. He also noted that while short-term geopolitical events can cause gasoline price fluctuations, like the $5.03 average in June 2022 compared to $4.31 in early June 2026, a robust infrastructure system built through efficient permitting would provide long-term stability and lower costs. He said that increased electricity demand from AI data centers makes permitting reform even more urgent.
Armstrong conveyed that there's bipartisan recognition that the U.S. is holding itself back by failing to build critical infrastructure. He expressed confidence that there is currently a favorable political climate for passing permitting reform, noting that many on both sides of the aisle understand the national importance of these changes. He plans to introduce the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act to address these issues, stressing that effective environmental protections can coexist with an efficient permitting system essential for national competitiveness.
He further pointed out that permitting failures have direct and painful consequences both domestically and internationally, preventing resources like natural gas from the Marcellus Shale from lowering heating bills and hindering aid to European allies. Armstrong lamented that the U.S. has become one of the hardest places to build critical infrastructure, which disproportionately affects consumers by increasing expenses and limiting access to necessary resources.
