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BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

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Billionaire energy investor John Arnold is pushing Congress to pass a permitting overhaul this fall to speed construction of new energy infrastructure.

Driving the news: The Arnold Ventures co-chair spoke with Axios Pro on stage Friday at the KBH Energy Center Symposium at the University of Texas at Austin.

This interview has been edited for length.

Axios Pro: In May, you said you were optimistic about permitting reform. It's September, we're going into a lame-duck session — how optimistic are you now?

Arnold: "Hopefully a bill gets introduced, the language gets finalized, in the next couple weeks. Leadership is signed on; the White House is still getting aboard.

Today's Congress, everything is hard. If this is going to happen — and I think this is the make-or-break moment — it would be in the lame-duck after the election."

Will this have to be some version of pipelines-for-power-lines, to get both Republicans and Democrats on board?

"Exactly. It has to be technology-neutral. It needs to address bottlenecks with wind, solar, natural gas, oil, LNG exports. You cannot have this industry function properly if every four years the rules of the game change."

You've made a distinction in the past between certainty and finality — that it's not merely about getting a permit, but knowing that once a project is approved, very little can be done to claw it back. Do you expect that mechanism to be in an eventual bill?

"There are provisions that if you have objections, you have a fixed amount of time to bring them, and then they're heard concurrently. When that process is over, there's certainty for the developer."

You've often discussed how hard it is to attract private investment to transmission projects. Who should be paying?

"Politicians both on the right and left have coalesced around the same principles: that the hyperscalers or data center developers have to hold the public harmless on power or bring down costs, have responsible and sustainable water use, bring real community benefits.

That's been my frustration with the state moratoriums [on data centers]: a lot of towns and communities are saying this provides value, jobs, an economic engine, and we want this."

Another bottleneck for building transmission is the supply chain: getting transformers and other grid equipment. You recently said you're hesitant to invest in manufacturing companies in the West that are competing with China. Is procuring some electrical equipment from China a necessary trade-off for meeting U.S. energy demand?

"China's ability to manufacture highly value-add equipment is second to none. They are often at the frontier on technology and price.

So the question is, how much do Western countries want to be dependent upon China? That matters on a component-by-component basis. There are certain components of the energy industry where you would say, 'We need to make it.' There's other components where there's probably less concern.

Think solar panels: Why are we scared about Chinese solar panels? I struggle with why we're having these large tariffs against them, except for the politics of it."

John Arnold: Permitting reform at a crossroads

The billionaire energy investor spoke on-stage with Axios Pro.

Arnold Ventures chair John Arnold, sitting at left in a dark sport coat, speaks on stage in a darkened ballroom, to a reporter sitting at right, facing away from the camera, in a blue striped shirt.

Arnold Ventures chair John Arnold at the KBH Energy Center Symposium in Austin on Friday. Photo: Rick Kern/Getty Images for Arnold Ventures

Billionaire energy investor John Arnold is pushing Congress to pass a permitting overhaul this fall to speed construction of new energy infrastructure.Driving the news: The Arnold Ventures co-chair spoke with Axios Pro on stage Friday at the KBH Energy Center Symposium at the University of Texas at Austin.

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John Arnold: Permitting reform at a crossroads

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