OPINION:
Growing up fishing with my dad off Georgia’s coast, I learned a cardinal rule of boating: never bring a banana. This might be a harmless myth, but when it comes to permitting, BANANAs aren’t just bad luck; they’re poison pills.
The “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (BANANA)” philosophy that plagues our permitting system is delaying clean energy projects for years.
Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 have recently come online in my home state of Georgia, marking the largest emissions-free energy source in the country and powering 1 million homes. Despite growing bipartisan support for nuclear energy projects, due to the reliable, renewable, and baseload energy they provide, regulations are standing in the way. It takes 6.7 years on average to approve a reactor license, and an additional 9 years to build the plant. Even after a project gets its permits, small issues such as vibrations in Plant Vogtle 3 that required a pipe brace can cost as much as $1 million per day and take a month or more for approvals.
That’s on top of frivolous NEPA lawsuits filed to block clean energy projects, costing taxpayers millions of dollars per year.
Imagine if you had to wait 30 days for approval from the DMV to put new tires on your car, only to wait an additional year while it was litigated in court. That’s the type of insanity we force builders to go through every day.
Earlier this year, the ADVANCE Act was signed into law, marking a bipartisan achievement for nuclear energy permitting reform. This is a step in the right direction; however, these issues are not unique to nuclear.
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According to the American Clean Power Association, likely bureaucratic delays on 100 gigawatts of new domestic clean energy projects will result in an additional 500 million metric tons of carbon emissions over the next ten years. This should make the Biden-Harris administration furious, as it directly threatens the lofty goals it laid out as part of the so-called Inflation “Reduction” Act.
To build a reliable and affordable clean energy economy, we must first be able to build. China is beating us in both manufacturing and critical materials production because the United States’ permitting landscape makes it one of the most expensive places in the world to build new infrastructure, no matter how widespread the support or positive the impact.
That’s why the Senate must act on the House-passed comprehensive permitting reform bill, H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act. This bill includes permitting reforms in all industries, allowing for increased energy production, streamlined energy infrastructure and exports, and boosted production and processing of critical materials.
Say it with me, “this system is bananas:” B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
• Rep. Buddy Carter represented Georgia’s First Congressional District. He serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he is chair of the Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials.
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