Oil and gas lobby sees AI boost for 2025 permitting overhaul
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AI's energy needs and rising household power bills could lower political hurdles to passing a major permitting bill this year, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said.
Why it matters: The powerful oil and gas group on Tuesday is unveiling a policy framework it hopes will inform sweeping, bipartisan legislation.
- It's part of API's wider lobbying and ad push to ease what many industries call undue barriers to infrastructure.
The big picture: The need to meet AI's power thirst "completely" changes the politics of permitting, Sommers tells Axios.
- He cites projections of U.S. electricity demand growing up to 40% by 2040, and home electricity bills that are already rising.
- "I believe that not just from a policy perspective do we need to get this done, but I think it is going to be a political imperative to get this done soon," he said in an interview.
"Politicians are going to start hearing from their constituents: 'Why are my electricity prices going up so much, 10%-20% every single year?'" Sommers said.
- The data center boom and rising U.S. electricity thirst overall are potentially a major boost for gas-fired power, and pipelines to provide it.
- More broadly, Sommers called a major bill needed to help the U.S. "win the AI race with China."
Driving the news: API sees many steps for Congress to speed federal reviews and limit challenges once projects are approved, like...
New deadlines for federal agencies to request additional info on projects, wider use of "categorical exclusions" from the most detailed reviews, and forcing states to limit "drawn out" reviews under the Clean Water Act.
Requiring that legal challenges be "filed promptly and only by those directly impacted by a project." They also want new deadlines for agencies to act when courts do remand permits for more work.
Limiting agency reviews to "direct project impacts" and confining reviews to alternatives "that align with the project sponsor's stated purpose." It would also bar use of the "social cost of carbon" in permit evaluations.
Reality check: Corralling 60 Senate votes for easing fossil fuel buildouts is a massive lift— even for bills that boost renewables projects alongside oil and gas.
- And it's an especially raw topic right now as Trump 2.0 officials yank permits for planned or even under-construction offshore wind projects.
Yes, but: Some renewables and other low-carbon energy interests signed a recent business-backed letter backing a major permitting overhaul.
- The "abundance" movement, which sees too many hurdles to building anything, has grown in prominence.
- "Both Republicans and Democrats have been frustrated with the permitting process," Sommers said.
What's next: API goals within the House Natural Resources Committee's purview are in a bipartisan bill the panel will review on Wednesday.
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