Families are facing higher bills at the grocery store, at the pump, and at the coffee shop. The one place they’re largely not seeing an increase? On their monthly natural gas bills.
While global energy markets have faced turmoil since the start of the Iran conflict, America’s robust supply of domestic natural gas has insulated natural gas prices here at home, helping to keep costs lower for families and businesses who use natural gas directly for heating, cooking, clothes drying, and more.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas is 3.5 times more affordable than electricity and significantly more affordable than several other residential energy sources, such as propane or fuel oil, for the same amount of energy delivered. That affordability gap is only widening as pressures on the electric grid rise, with natural gas projected to be one-half to one-third the price of other fuels through at least 2050.
Natural gas utilities have worked hard to keep the cost of infrastructure from impacting consumers, but every sector of the energy industry agrees that federal permitting reform is vital to enable infrastructure growth at the scale and pace it’s required to meet the needs of our rapidly growing economy affordably.
The biggest barrier to energy infrastructure construction isn’t technology or engineering — we have the expertise we need to build, and to build quickly and affordably. Our biggest roadblock is cumbersome and outdated government policies that add years of delay, uncertainty, and unnecessary costs to building new and modernizing existing infrastructure before a shovel even hits the ground. When it takes an act of Congress or White House action to greenlight essential energy infrastructure, as they say, “Houston, we have a problem.”
Critical energy infrastructure projects can face years of navigating overlapping reviews, litigation threats, and shifting regulatory standards. Projects that should take months can drag on for a decade or more. Even routine upgrades become slower and more expensive. Unfortunately, those costs don’t just disappear. They ripple outward through the economy and eventually land on the shoulders of families.
Permitting reform is not a partisan issue. It is an affordability issue. If we want to lower the cost of living for families, the fastest way to do so is for Congress to pass meaningful permitting reform and allow America to build and to deliver the vital, life-saving energy we have at our fingertips without the undue cost of broken policy. More modernized infrastructure will allow our industry to deliver life-essential natural gas, especially to underserved communities, more efficiently and affordably, while gaining emissions reductions along the way.
REPUBLICANS ARE PLAYING SOCIALIST WITH YOUR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
The good news is that momentum for reform is growing. The Trump administration and lawmakers in both parties have acknowledged that America’s permitting system has become excessively burdensome and counterproductive. Recent administrative actions aimed at accelerating infrastructure approvals are welcome progress. Policymakers are also acknowledging the real economic burden of rising prices across our economy on families.
Meaningful long-term change will require Congress to go further by creating durable permitting certainty and reforming a litigation system that too often allows critical infrastructure projects to be tied up indefinitely after permits and environmental approvals have been granted. The faster we codify these changes into law, the faster we can meaningfully address affordability for hardworking families.
Karen Harbert is president and CEO of the American Gas Association, which represents more than 200 local energy companies committed to the safe and reliable delivery of clean natural gas to more than 74 million customers throughout the nation.