Axios Live: Permitting and prices take center stage in energy security debate

WASHINGTON – Permitting reform and high consumer prices are two key priorities that need to be addressed as the U.S. energy landscape faces unprecedented demand, experts said at an Axios event.

Why it matters: The search is on for reliable and affordable energy sources that can meet growing needs.

Axios' Ben Geman and Chuck McCutcheon spoke at the event with ClearPath CEO Jeremy Harrell, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Joseph Majkut, energy security and climate change program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It was sponsored by Shell.

What they're saying: "As we think about energy security as a whole, it's about driving technology forward to provide affordable, reliable, lower-emission technology domestically, and having a supply chain that's capable of driving and rapidly scaling those types of technologies," Harrell said when asked to broadly define energy security.

State of play: Permitting reform is gaining traction on Capitol Hill, as many argue that current federal processes are hindering the U.S.' ability to build the infrastructure it requires to meet rising energy demand.

• "Permitting [is] the single largest barrier to meeting our long-term energy and environmental needs in this country, to winning the AI race, to rapidly accelerating American manufacturing," Harrell said.
• "I think the permitting reform conversation and the actions that the administration has taken are probably helpful," Majkut said.

Yes, but: "I think whether or not we can really see projects get across the finish line is going to be the most important question," Majkut said. "We've got right now an instinct toward permitting reform and permissiveness, but I think we're yet to see so-called steel in the ground."

Driving the news: Rising energy prices are hitting consumers' wallets hard as new levels of demand strain the electric grid.

• Casten introduced the Cheap Energy Act as an effort to incentivize energy industry players to lower costs for consumers.

• "Let's explicitly say part of the national interest is lowering costs for U.S. energy consumers," Casten said. "These shouldn't be controversial, and yet throughout our entire history, we have tended to favor producers over consumers every time we've hit that barrier."
• "We have a lot of permitting reform pieces in there as well, but our basic theory is if you get the profit incentives right, permitting is easy."

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View From the Top conversation, Colette Hirstius, Shell USA Inc. president and executive vice president of Gulf of America, and Rick Tallant, Shell EVP of supply chain and contracting and procurement, discussed opportunities to advance U.S. energy security.

• "One of the key things that we need is reliable permitting, and there's an opportunity to have bipartisan permitting reform that can create much more of an attractive environment here in the U.S., much more of a competitive environment for different companies like Shell to invest in," Hirstius said.RSVP here.